Research articles on INNOVATION

Public value in the making of automated and datafied welfare futures

Doris Allhutter, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Anila Alushi, University of Leipzig
Rafaela Cavalcanti de Alcântara, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Maris Männiste, Södertörn University
Christian Pentzold, University of Leipzig
Sebastian Sosnowski, Polish Academy of Sciences
PUBLISHED ON: 30 Sep 2024 DOI: 10.14763/2024.3.1803

This article considers the public value of automated and datafied welfare and uses the capability approach, buen vivir, and data justice to explore the relation between the procedural and normative components of emerging infrastructures of welfare.

The unusual DAO: An ethnography of building trust in “trustless” spaces

Tara Merk, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)/University of Paris II
PUBLISHED ON: 24 Sep 2024 DOI: 10.14763/2024.3.1795

This paper investigates decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) as a potential policy response to the issue of declining trust online and argues that while DAOs have privileged displacing the need for trust, they can also be designed to nourish trust thereby fostering participation and prosocial use cases.

Digital organising

Stephan Bohn, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
Ali Aslan Gümüsay, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Georg von Richthofen, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
Georg Reischauer, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
PUBLISHED ON: 16 Nov 2023 DOI: 10.14763/2023.4.1726

Digital organising refers to the collective purposeful alignment and distributed action fostered through digital technologies. The apparently opposing nature of digital organising draws attention to the need to unravel the concept theoretically.

Identifying potential emerging human rights implications in Chinese smart cities via machine-learning aided patent analysis

Joss Wright, University of Oxford
Valentin Weber, German Council on Foreign Relations
Gregory Finn Walton, SecDev Group
PUBLISHED ON: 28 Jul 2023 DOI: 10.14763/2023.3.1718

We focus on using patent data, with machine learning methods, in the context of China, for the purpose of tracking the pace of development of potentially human rights sensitive smart city technologies.

Reproducing the GDPR provided the LGPD with principles that compel firms to innovate in the Brazilian privacy-enhancing technologies market. To rebalance opportunities for Brazilian firms, this paper advocates implementing local content policy for privacy-enhancing technologies.

Beyond the individual: governing AI’s societal harm

Nathalie A. Smuha, KU Leuven
PUBLISHED ON: 30 Sep 2021 DOI: 10.14763/2021.3.1574

In this article, I propose a distinction between individual harm, collective harm and societal harm caused by artificial intelligence (AI), and focus particularly on the latter. By listing examples and identifying concerns, I provide a conceptualisation of AI’s societal harm so as to better enable its identification and mitigation. Drawing on an analogy with environmental law, which also aims to protect an interest affecting society at large, I propose governance mechanisms that EU policymakers should consider to counter AI’s societal harm.

Cryptocurrency

Ingolf G. A. Pernice, Weizenbaum Institute
Brett Scott, Independent
PUBLISHED ON: 20 May 2021 DOI: 10.14763/2021.2.1561

A cryptocurrency system can be understood as a system intended for the issuance of tokens which are intended to be used as a general or limited-purpose medium-of-exchange, and which are accounted for using an often collectively-maintained digital ledger making use of cryptography to replace trust in institutions to varying extents. Against such a backdrop, the singular term cryptocurrency can mean a token, intended to be used as a general or limited-purpose medium-of-exchange, issued via a cryptocurrency system.

KEYWORDS: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

Decentralisation in the blockchain space

Balázs Bodó, University of Amsterdam
Jaya Klara Brekke, Durham University
Jaap-Henk Hoepman, Radboud University
PUBLISHED ON: 19 May 2021 DOI: 10.14763/2021.2.1560

The rapidly evolving blockchain technology space has put decentralisation back into the focus of the design of techno-social systems, and the role of decentralised technological infrastructures in achieving particular social, economic, or political goals. In this entry we address how blockchains and distributed ledgers think about decentralisation.