Lecture 5 - Francqui Chair - Prof. Dr. Stefania Milan

Lecture 5:

"Inequality by Design? Exclusion and Invisibility in the Data-Driven State"

Regulatory data infrastructures promise efficiency and fairness but often reproduce inequality in subtle yet systemic ways. This lecture examines how data-driven governance can entrench exclusion and invisibility by rendering certain individuals and communities underrepresented, misclassified, or entirely absent from datasets. It traces how algorithmic systems transform social difference into technical error and how data poverty—unequal access to, or representation within, data infrastructures—deepens existing hierarchies of privilege and neglect. At the same time, it highlights how civic actors, researchers, and advocacy groups work to expose these hidden asymmetries and imagine fairer data futures. Concluding the series, the lecture reflects on what democratic accountability might look like in a world where visibility itself has become a condition for participation and recognition.