Browsing by Author "Herlo, Bianca"

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Designforschung im Kontext sozialer und politischer Partizipation
(transcript Verlag, 2022) Herlo, Bianca; Hofhues, Sandra; Schütze, Konstanze
Digital Sovereignty in times of AI: between perils of hegemonic agendas and possibilities of alternative approaches
(2024) Costa Barbosa, Alexandre; Herlo, Bianca; Joost, Gesche
Although it has been on the agenda for over a decade, the importance of digital sovereignty has recently increased. Nations-states worldwide have developed policies or expressed through speeches the need to safeguard their interests in the digital realm. The current technological frontier is artificial intelligence (AI). Hence, digital sovereignty agendas now encompass the complexities introduced by AI. This article explores contemporary discourses on digital sovereignty, highlighting how different ideological positions shape these conversations. Current discussions reveal a multifaceted field where sovereignty is interpreted through varied lenses, directly influencing the governance of technologies such as AI. Predominant perspectives often focus on state, market, or individual sovereignty over data, algorithms, and AI models. However, through document and discourse analysis, the article examines alternative approaches such as sustainable, grassroots, and feminist digital sovereignties and those led by communities or indigenous peoples. These visions challenge the mainstream by emphasizing autonomy, inclusion, and sustainability in managing critical AI resources, including computing, databases, data, and algorithm governance. By analyzing these approaches, the article identifies principles that can foster more diverse, democratic, and virtuous AI development. Finds points out that participatory governance and the development of emancipatory technologies are essential to navigating the ethical and practical issues that emerge at the intersection of digital sovereignty and AI. In a normative way, the article concludes by reflecting on how these alternative discourses can influence the future of AI, pointing to paths that could lead to a more inclusive and sovereign AI development aligned with collective and environmental values. Future research could explore how these sovereignty conceptions catalyze an AI's evolution to align with collective digital self-determination and more conscious and equitable resource management practices.
Editorial: Practicing Sovereignty – Interventions for Open Digital Futures
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023) Irrgang, Daniel; Herlo, Bianca
This issue is dedicated to the Weizenbaum Conference 2022, titled ‘Practicing Sovereignty: Interventions for Open Digital Futures.’ The Weizenbaum Institute’s annual gathering brought together researchers, networks, and collaborators to focus on the theme of ‘digital sovereignty.’ This term, hotly debated and used with varying connotations in fields such as research, activism, law, and policy-making, refers to competencies, duties, and rights in digital societies. The contributions compiled in this issue are based on papers presented at the 2022 conference. They explore notions of digital sovereignty in tension with topics such as AI deepfakes, algorithmic governmentality, ethics and datafication in the context of machine learning, and community-driven open-access publishing in academia.
Erzählen im Reallabor. Ein Beitrag zur konzeptionellen Ausgestaltung partizipativer Methoden der gemeinsamen Wissensproduktion durch Erzählräume im Reallabor
(2021) Seydel, Hanna; Gliemann, Katrin; Stark, Sandra; Herlo, Bianca
The transdisciplinary intersection between science and society in the real-world-laboratory approach is seen as a potential for generating transformational knowledge. At the same time, there are open questions in the methodological implementation, which are addressed in this paper by insights on experimental formats of storytelling. Using the example of the research project INTERPART, this paper explores the questions how intercultural spaces of participation in urban development can be expanded and what changes in institutional processes are required to achieve this. The paper involves two academic disciplines – spatial planning and design research – and fields of practice. Central findings include how deliberately designed narrative situations promote the co-production of transformative knowledge by encouraging participation in research and engaging citizens as experts of everyday life in co-research. The paper thus contributes to the current discourse on participatory research and co-production of knowledge in the context of methodological differentiation of real-world laboratory approaches.
Gestaltungspraktiken in transdisziplinärer Forschung
(transcript, 2024) Herlo, Bianca; Ebert, Iris; Rahn, Sebastian; Rodatz, Christoph
New working spaces in rural areas
(Routledge, 2022) Lange, Bastian; Herlo, Bianca; Willi, Yasmine; Pütz, Marco; Mariotti, I.; Di Marino, M.; Bednář, P.
Online Podcast Production as Co-Creation for Intercultural Participation in Neighbourhood Development
(2022) Barbarino, Robert; Herlo, Bianca; Bergmann, Malte
This article describes the usage of an online podcast workshop as an arts-based research method to reflect on intercultural participation. The podcast workshop was co-developed by researchers, local civil society actors, and administrative employees and deployed in a research infrastructure based on real-world labs. We show how the online podcast workshop as a research tool elicits co-creation with agonistic as well as communicative practices. The podcast combined practices of making with socially engaged research, using digital storytelling. It aimed at enhancing intercultural dialogue and participation and was used as an opportunity for voices that are not sufficiently represented in local public discourse on neighbourhood development to become recognised and challenge marginalisation. Based on one online podcast workshop, the article addresses new possibilities for collective and collaborative action during the Covid-19 pandemic and frames the podcast as a moderated place for exchange and reflection in the digital space. The podcast workshop intended to foster further discussion on the topic of intercultural participation and was conceived as a tool for empowerment that participants can use for further conversations and exchange in their communities.
Pilot with Sana Ahmad, Bianca Herlo, and Lena Ulbricht
(2022-03-22) Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Ahmad, Sana
This first episode introduces the hosts of the podcast, who are Berlin based researchers from the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. They introduce themselves and explain why they look at digitalized societies through an intersectional feminist perspective. They see the podcast as a way to listen to voices that are often silenced when talking about the digital transformation of societies, and to take seriously the personal views and experiences of their future guests in order to challenge the aura of objectivity of digital technologies that is dominant in public and academic discourse.
Practicing sovereignty. Digital involvement in times of crises
(transcript, 2021) Herlo, Bianca; Irrgang, Daniel; Joost, Gesche; Unteidig, Andreas
Digital sovereignty has become a hotly debated concept. The current convergence of multiple crises adds fuel to this debate, as it contextualizes the concept in a foundational discussion of democratic principles, civil rights, and national identities: is (technological) self-determination an option for every individual to cope with the digital sphere effectively? Can disruptive events provide chances to rethink our ideas of society - including the design of the objects and processes which constitute our techno-social realities? The positions assembled in this volume analyze opportunities for participation and policy-making, and describe alternative technological practices before and after the pandemic.
Proceedings of the Weizenbaum Conference 2022: Practicing Sovereignty - Interventions for Open Digital Futures
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023) Herlo, Bianca; Irrgang, Daniel
We advocate for the adoption of an integrated strategy aimed at achieving increased participation via effective digital public administration services. We argue that it is urgent to understand the integration of participatory approaches from the field of e-democracy in digitalized public administration, as trendsetting e-government implementations are already underway. We base our arguments on the observation that the approaches in e-democracy and e-government seem to be locked into extremes: In e-democracy, (experimental) platforms have failed to create a participative political culture. E- government, in turn, narrowly perceives citizens as customers. Additionally, efforts to increase digital sovereignty have mostly been educational ones that support citizens’ self-determined use of the digital but do not address sovereignty via the digital. As a result, digitalized public administration is not achieving its potential to create opportunities for participation during encounters with the administration. Hence, we argue for the adoption of a digitally aided sovereignty as a normative guide for an e-government transformation that strives to create opportunities for participation via the digital.
Purple Code – With Aida Eyvazzadeh and Sakine M. Bozorg
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-06-17) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Eyvazzadeh, Aida; Bozorg, Sakine M.
Aida Eyvazzadeh and Sakine M. Bozorg are former content moderators in Berlin who worked for a global social media platform. The are both from Iran and in this episode, they talk about why and how migrant workers in Germany constitute as a crucial labor supply to the global platform economy. They explain what content moderation is, how it is labor intensive work and requires several skills. Instead of being valued, content moderators face high control on their work and even repression, a kind of corporate authoritarianism that reminds them of the authoritarian regime in Iran. They go on to recount their experiences of challenging these power asymmetries through the German institutional resources and trade unions, and the difficulties they have faced in doing so. Talking about these experiences, they suggest ways for unions to reflect and make certain changes. Beyond these institutions, they also find hope in networking with different communities in Berlin and internationally for sharing resources and finding possibilities to organize. Aida currently works in the civil society sector and Sakine is an independent researcher and essayist. She is also part of the Data Workers Inquiry project (https://data-workers.org/) that is supported by the Distributed AI Research Institute and the Weizenbaum Institute and is launching on the 8th of July this year.
Purple Code – With Anna Antonakis
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2026-02-18) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Antonakis, Anna
In this episode, we speak with Anna about the possibilities and limitations of bridging engaged research, activism, and academia, and about how social media platforms such as Facebook both support and constrain feminist activism. Examples include the Arab Spring as well as more recent developments. A central focus is the role of content moderation in feminist activism. In addition, Anna reflects on her experiences with feminism in Tunisia and Switzerland, as well as on the paradox of strong direct political participation alongside the very late introduction of women’s suffrage. Further aspects of the discussion include possibilities for empowerment in the context of Big Tech and the social responsibility of academic research.
Purple Code – With Armaghan Naghipour
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023-12-21) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Naghipour, Armaghan
Our guest Armaghan Naghipour is a lawyer specializing in migration and anti-discrimination law and the deputy chairwoman of DeutschPlus (https://www.deutsch-plus.de). Most recently, she was State Secretary for Science, Research and Equality in the State of Berlin. Prior to that, she held various advisory positions in Berlin state politics, including helping to draft Berlin’s state anti-discrimination law. In the wonderful atmosphere of the Grüner Salon at the Volksbühne Berlin, we talk about Armaghan’s experiences as a political advisor and State Secretary, about what it is like to take on responsibility as State Secretary and to shape society in these specific political structures, but also about the hesitation and the feeling of being an impostor, and what it is like to jump in at the deep end. We talk about the responsibility that comes with such an appointment, about discrimination characteristics of AI from a legal perspective and how legal frameworks shape our everyday lives. We touch upon the anti-discrimination law in Germany and specifically the Berlin anti-discrimination law, upon how Armaghan’s parents fled Iran in the 1980s when she was 1 year old, and how the topic of migration is a recurring theme in her professional work as well as in this podcast. Last but not least, we talk about the power that comes from these kinds of conversations.
Purple Code – With Basma Mostafa
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-03-05) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Mostafa, Basma
In this episode, we speak with Basma Mostafa, a journalist from Egypt living in exile in Germany. We speak about the role of journalism and the use of digital technologies including social media during and following the Egyptian revolution. We learn about the increasing threats to press freedom and military violence against journalists, lawyers and activists in the country, and hopes of fighting the Egyptian regime from exile. Basma’s story is reflective of the struggles faced by exiled diaspora in Germany and what it means to miss ‘home’ when the home of one’s memory and imagination no longer exists. We ask Basma about what different movements can learn from the Egyptian revolution that started more than 13 years ago and if there is potential in building international diasporic movements in Germany.
Purple Code – With Clara Herrmann
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-10-14) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Herrmann, Clara
After a long summer break, we are back with a new exiting guest: Clara Herrmann. Since 2019, Clara has headed the JUNGE AKADEMIE, the international artist-in-residence program of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. For JUNGE AKADEMIE she developed the program HUMAN MACHINE and initiated and curated the project AI ANARCHIES with a fellowship program and an autumn school co-curated by Nora N. Khan and Maya Indira Ganesh and a final exhibition and event in 2024: The Anarchy of the Soul. Clara was co-founder and coordinator of the Digital Solitude program at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, where she developed and curated the project Web Residencies. In this episode, Clara guides us through her work as a curator, the specific challenges of her projects and the undertakings to open up art while leaving it with complete autonomy in times of great politicization.
Purple Code – With Eliana Quiroz
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2022-06-06) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Quiroz, Eliana
This conversation with Eliana Quiroz, digital rights activist and author from Bolivia and temporary fellow at the Hans-Bredow-Institute in Hamburg, delves into the many implications of digital media for women. Eliana has co-founded the Bolivian digital rights collective https://internetbolivia.org/ and has fought for decades to improve digital rights in Bolivia. As she explains, this entails to maneuver a highly polarized political context, and to maintain a stubborn persistency. She has engaged in fostering free software, in drafting and lobbying a data protection bill, and to support self-defense strategies against online violence directed towards women and indigenous communities. She furthermore elaborates on how being a woman in male dominated tech and political communities affects her work – a situation to which Sana, Bianca, and Lena can relate very well, as becomes clear in the conversation.
Purple Code – With Elisa Lindinger
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2025-03-08) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Lindinger, Elisa
Elisa is co-founder of SUPERRR, a lab for feminist futures that Elisa founded together with Julia Kloiber. SUPERRR deals with traditional questions of digital rights and understands feminism as inherent intersectional feminism. Our guest Elisa works to create a base where different expertise can come together and have fruitful conversations about digital, but also social justice issues. In this episode, she talks about how to practice and establish a “thinking about the future” that helps policy makers shape visions and laws that do not harm those who are already disadvantaged, but benefit us all. Elisa and her colleagues provide methods on how to address digital rights issues in a world of massive inequalities. She asks: How can we bring in our own narratives and define our own playing field? For Elisa, digital policy must be framed as social policy, and this is a crucial factor.
Purple Code – With Helena Mihaljević
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2023-08-11) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Mihaljević, Helena
Our summer break episode is a special one: Helena Mihaljević, mathematician and professor for computer science, talks about her fascination for math, chess and boxing; about her migration history; about training data that are so deeply rooted in our culture and history. Helena elaborates why math is not neutral, how she experiences improvements in the tech industry, and her involvement in an ongoing study of the gender gap in different sciences and regions. Listen to our conversation on how to empower young women to be confident in tech jobs, and how we should have tech companies and technology audits that are contextual and participative, carried out together with advocacy organizations and researchers.
Purple Code – With Leil-Zahra Mortada
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2022-09-05) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Leil-Mortada, Zahra
In this episode, our conversation with Leil-Zahra Mortada draws from their expertise on digital rights, online security, and open source investigations from anticolonial, feminist and queer perspectives. Their work spans across the fields of art/ filmmaking, activism and research, and includes the archival project “Words of Women from the Egyptian Revolution”; the awarded “Breakup in 9 Scenes”, and the decolonial-feminist music research project Sound Frontier focusing on marginalized music and sound art. Apart from their work with different organizations Indymedia, Mozilla Foundation and Tactical Tech, Leil-Zahra has also been part of forming several political collectives and alternative media groups in Lebanon, Egypt, Spain and elsewhere. By working on the intersections of human rights and digital technologies, Leil-Zahra brings forth several pertinent questions in this episode: who produces digital technologies and whose rights are included? How do marginalized communities engage with them? And what are the alternatives to present day technologies? The interdisciplinary nature of their work further facilitates our discussions on the structural frames for studying digital technologies.
Purple Code – With Martina Di Tullio
(Weizenbaum Institute, 2024-12-20) Ahmad, Sana; Herlo, Bianca; Ulbricht, Lena; Di Tullio, Martina
Martina researches the use of digital technologies in rural indigenous communities in the Puna of Jujuy, Northwest Argentina. The Jujuy Puna is part of the so-called Lithium Triangle, a high-altitude desert area where lithium – one of the most important minerals for the production of digital technologies – is mined and processed, leading to the pollution of scarce water resources. In addition, the rural and indigenous population, who have always lived in this region, are excluded from the products of this exploitation. In this episode, Martina talks to us about the political meanings and consequences of these processes for everyday life in the Puna villages, about issues of digital sovereignty and the struggles of the communities. She argues that the spread of algorithmic digital media represents a new dimension of a centuries-old structure of coloniality for indigenous peoples in Latin America.