Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
Stefania Milan
2022-2023
Home institution
University of Amsterdam
Country of origin (home institution)
Netherlands
Discipline(s)
Science and technology studies
Sociology
Theme(s)
Democracy, Citizenship, Governance
Digital Society
Human Rights
Fellowship dates
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Biography
Stefania Milan is Professor of Critical Data Studies at the Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. She is also Faculty Associate (2020-2022) at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. University. Her work explores the interplay between digital technology and data, political participation and governance, with focus on infrastructure and agency.
Stefania leads the project “Citizenship and standard-setting in digital networks” (in-sight.it), funded by the Dutch Research Council. She is also Co-Principal Investigator in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network “Early language development in the digital age” (e-ladda.eu). In 2015-2021 she was the Principal Investigator of DATACTIVE (data-activism.net) and of the Algorithms Exposed (ALEX) project (algorithms.exposed), both funded by the European Research Council.
Stefania holds a PhD in Political and Social Science from the European University Institute (2009). Prior to joining the University of Amsterdam, she worked at, among others, the Citizen Lab (University of Toronto), Tilburg University, and the Central European University. In 2012, she founded the Data J Lab (currently inactive). In 2017-2018, she was Associate Professor (II) of Media Innovation at the University of Oslo. In 2017, she co-founded the Big Data from the South Research Initiative, investigating the impact of datafication and surveillance on communities at the margins.
Among others, Stefania is the author of Social Movements and Their Technologies: Wiring Social Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013/2016), co-author of Media/Society (Sage, 2011), and co-editor of COVID-19 from the Margins. Pandemic Invisibilities, Policies and Resistance in the Datafied Society (Institute of Network Cultures, 2021).
Research Project
Face Off! Resistance to Facial Recognition Technology in Public Spaces
How do citizens resist the implementation of facial recognition technology in society?
Automated facial recognition technology is creeping into public spaces. It is implemented in airports to speed up boarding, in everyday policing to automatically identify lawbreakers, in public schools to facilitate internal payments and track student emotions. Despite the galvanizing narratives associated with this form of biometrics, however, critical voices are on the rise. Facial recognition technology “might be the world’s most divisive technology,” argued The New York Times. It is “arsenic in the water supply of democracy,” denounced the UK civil liberties group Liberty. “Is facial recognition too biased to be let loose?,” asked Nature. To be sure, a number of shortcomings have been associated with this intrusive technology: the scarce accuracy rate, the poor transparency of the software and the politics surrounding its adoption, the lack of democratic oversight, and the potential overreach of this intrusive form of data collection. Recently, various civil rights organizations have launched campaigns articulating a public critique of facial recognition technology. For example, Reclaim Your Face wants to ban facial recognition technology from public space across the European Union, because the technology is “secretive. Unlawful. Inhumane.” However, citizens, including social movements, are mostly out of touch with this debate.
Combining critical data studies, political sociology, and science and technology studies, this project asks how citizens counter the threats of facial recognition technology through discursive interventions. It investigates how people make sense of and react to it, focusing on public discourse and policymaking in Amsterdam and at the European Union (EU) level. Data gathering methods include interviewing and focus groups, desk research, and process tracing. In addition, the project involves citizens as “skilled learners” (Milan & Milan, 2016), through the experimental method of “data walking” where participants reflect on how technology influences civic space.
Research Interests:
Biometric technology and surveillance; Citizen resistance and activism; Data governance and civil liberties