Digital Transformation and Social Justice

Passing on Knowledge and Experience: What’s the issue?

Common knowledge has it that in today’s world tech companies are driving their agenda of surveillance capitalism and law enforcement agencies institute surveillance mechanisms that collide with the civil and digital rights of citizens – all through the use of digital tools and artificial intelligence. However, little attention is paid to the ongoing digital transformation of social assistance systems and the use of these very same technologies.

But if one looks back in history, it becomes clear that since the Middle Ages authorities, first in Europe and then in their oversea’s colonies, routinely regulated the rights and movements of the poor. First and foremost, they instituted an obligation to work. Today, a wide range of public services are intended to provide support and assistance towards particular social groups. Those services are based on rules and regulations that determine – on the one hand, the rights and obligations of the individual beneficiary – and, on the other hand, of government agencies to collect information, take decisions, monitor, as well as reward and sanction individuals. As probably any other aspect of our society, this whole complex is influenced by and supported through (digital) technology.

Thus, India has instituted a digital social protection programme for more than a billion people. During the Covid-19 pandemic other countries followed. I worked myself for years in the digitalization of protection and assistance for refugees, mainly in the Global South. Meanwhile, algorithms and automated decision making (ADM) determine in countries of the Global North whether prisoners are released on parole or unemployed applicants will be offered job training. And the story is just beginning.

Teaching Assignments

Since 2018, I have taken-over teaching assignments as part of a MA course in Intercultural Conflict Management at the Alice-Salomon-University for Applied Sciences in Berlin. Initially, I concentrated with my international students on concepts and modalities of providing protection and assistance to refugees living in camps.

As the global landscape keeps changing (and digitalization is accelerating), it was felt necessary to no longer limit the scope to those affected by forced displacement but to broaden it and to deal with various social groups. At the same time, in view of the digitalization of public administration, the workspace, social media, consumer electronics, and citizens’ surveillance and almost every other aspect of our lives, the focus of teaching was put on digital technologies.

Starting in 2022, the topic of my teaching has, thus, been the ongoing digital transformation and social justice. Jointly with Dr. Michael Kubach our revamped courses at Alice-Salomon-University explore how the digital transformation processes in various countries affect social protection systems. Questions are raised and discussed on whether the increase use of digital tools constitutes a problem or is part of a solution towards social justice? How actors in politics, bureaucracy, and civil society can drive and hedge these processes?

We are also currently preparing similar teaching assignments for courses at the Berlin School of Economics and Law.