Responsible Digitalization

This paper presentation session proposes to discuss contributions of sociological research towards making digitalization more responsible. Be it the polarization of political discourse by Facebook, the gentrification of local communities by Airbnb, or the reproduction of systemic racism through biased AI, rampant digitalization has exacerbated existing inequalities as well as created new ones. In response, sociological research can help develop insights and guidelines for more responsible digitalization that is responsive to its wider societal implications. The session is open to conceptual, methodological, and empirical papers that demonstrate and discuss the societal intricacies of making digitalization more societally responsible and/or develop relevant suggestions; hence, submissions need to go beyond demonstrating the negative effects of digitalization. Topics may include ethical dilemmas of digitalization, the challenges faced by regulation, privacy, alternative principles for digitalization based on, for instance, indigenous philosophy, to name but only a few examples.