Jens-Erik Mai | Research Interests

Research Interests

 

My current research interests centers on INFORMATION IN SOCIETY -‐ the multidisciplinary field of inquiry concerned with historical, philosophical, ethical, cultural, and con/textual dimensions of information, information and communication technology, digital media, and information and cultural institutions. Research in thist area consists of critical analyses and empirical investigations of the political, ethical, and conceptual ramifications generated by the digital information society.

 

The goals of scholarship within INFORMATION IN SOCIETY is to produce questions, insights, critiques and knowledge that shape information practices, policies, public debates and research on the future of the information society.

 

Research themes within INFORMATION IN SOCIETY include:

- controlling the aggrandizement of surveillance societies

- securing the privacy of personal information and data

‐ re/occurrences of historical shifts in information and media

‐ digital media’s reconfiguration of society and media

‐ late‐modern characterizations of authority and trust in information

- shifts in communication and information practices

- cultural analyses of data, datafication and big data

- understanding the nature, ethics and history of information

 

Specific research questions that I pursue within INFORMATION IN SOCIETY include:

  1. What is the interrelation between the global and the local information society?

While the internet initially shaped the idea of an emancipative society that allowed for basic information freedoms and cultural expression, there is now a struggle between global, centralized information and cultural monopolies on one side and localized information practices, cultural communication, and ethical expectations on the other.

 

  1. What are the possibilities of securing people’s informational privacy in the age of big data, digital media and information commerce?

While informational privacy is commonly based on the notion of consent and control of one’s own personal information, new forms of information and communication technologies transcend these traditional notions by capturing digital footprints generated in the human‐ICT interaction, which is subsequently analyzed and used to gain new insights about people.

 

  1. What are the societal consequences of the increased surveillance of citizens and customers?

While digital information and communications technologies, digital media and the internet more broadly have generated greater information freedoms they have at the same time created an infrastructure that enable the state, private cooperations, and public organizations to pry into the lives of ordinary people without their knowledge or consent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jens-Erik Mai

Research Interests

www.jenserikmai.info