Lecture 3 - Francqui Chair - Prof. Dr. Stefania Milan

Lecture 3:

Francqui Chair - Francqui Foundation

"The Datafied Citizen: Agency, Identity, and Belonging in the Datafied State"

Regulatory data infrastructures shape not only how states govern but also how people experience citizenship and belonging. This lecture examines how algorithmic systems—such as facial recognition technologies, welfare scoring tools, and digital identity schemes—redefine participation, rights, and trust in public institutions. It explores how data-driven categorization produces new forms of inclusion and exclusion, while also giving rise to subtle and overt acts of resistance—from organized digital rights campaigns to everyday refusals and creative reappropriations of technology. Focusing on how citizens negotiate and reimagine their agency within data regimes, the lecture asks: what does it mean to belong, to be recognized, and to act as a citizen when the infrastructures that mediate identity and participation are designed elsewhere?

You can register for this lecture until February 13.