The Digital Society: Empirical Perspectives on the Digital Transformation of the Public Sphere and Its Institutions

Digitalization implies a wide range of transformation processes at all levels of democratic societies. The political, public and academic debates about digitalization and democracy have always been controversial and still are today. Greatly intensified research activities in recent years have expanded our knowledge about the effects of digitalization, but show that debates still range from optimistic views to sceptic or even dystopian perspectives. The former emphasize the potential of the internet to drive innovation in society and to enhance democracy. Moreover, the expanding digitalization of everyday life seems as an opportunity for increasing individualism and free choice. From this perspective it is claimed that digital technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and algorithms are to be seen as helpful tools in optimizing social life. In contrast, skeptical views highlighting the risks and even threats of digitalization for democratic values have increased recently. This finds expression in many well-researched aspects such as the growing relevance of fake news and "alternative facts" online. Algorithmic filtering promotes visibility of polarizing content and politically extreme positions. Furthermore, social media platforms can no longer be seen as neutral gathering places for rule-governed discourse. In addition, it is warned about digital technology and AI threatening autonomous decision making and the digitalization of everyday life is critically viewed as a misuse of data in terms of public surveillance and control. All of this makes it necessary to further research the role of digitization with regard to strengthening and preserving democracy in the digital age. This was precisely the main focus of the NRW Digital Society research network funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2018 to 2022. The book is the central joint publication of the network and brings together the projects and disciplines of all universities and collegesparticipating in the network. The publication documents the most important project results that have not yet been published centrally and presents them for discussion not only to the academic public. At the same time, the book offers an insight into the interdisciplinary characteristics and challenges of the growing research field of digitization research.

This is an open access book.