Description
The use of Big Data & Artificial Intelligence in public governance is changing how individuals and groups interact with the state. My research explores how these changing relationships impact on the legitimacy of decision-making in the public sphere, focusing on challenges of consent to digital governance.
The importance of consent to the legitimate exercise of authority by the state is central to the idea of a social contract. The state, and its right to exercise authority, only exists through a common agreement of the people to abide by the decisions of the state. However, how consent is or can be reached is under-theorised.
In our daily lives, we are asked to give our consent to the collection and sharing of the data that we produce. However, it is rarely clear to the ordinary person, exactly what data is gathered, what happens to it once gathered, and how it can be used.
The gap in understanding by the public about the nature of the data they generate, and what happens to it, raises important ethical questions about the role of consent in digital governance. My project thus aims to update social contract theory for our new digital age.
