[Commlist] New book – Governing the Digital Society: Platforms, Artificial Intelligence, and Public Values

New open access book – Governing the Digital Society: Platforms, 
Artificial Intelligence, and Public Values

Editors: José van Dijck, Karin van Es, Anne Helmond, Fernando van der Vlist

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

Link: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789048571406/governing-the-digital-society

Available Open Access: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/101572

## Contents

Digital technologies have rapidly become integral to communities and 
societies, bringing both significant benefits and serious concerns. 
Issues such as misinformation, disinformation, online polarization, 
discrimination, and widening inequalities have prompted a critical and 
urgent debate: Can digital societies still be effectively governed? This 
book brings together insights from various disciplines to address the 
pressing question: “How can we develop and apply principles of (good) 
governance in digital societies that are organized democracies?”

Governing the Digital Society presents a range of governance approaches, 
focusing on online platforms, artificial intelligence, and the public 
values that underpin these technologies. The authors position themselves 
at the forefront of their disciplines, offering perspectives from law, 
critical data studies, urban studies, science and technology studies, 
computational linguistics, and the political economy of media. Expert 
interviews provide additional insights into ongoing efforts to tackle 
the challenges of governing digital societies. The book demonstrates 
that governance is not just a technical or legal process but a complex 
societal one, embedding norms, values, and morality into our 
institutions and daily lives.

## Table of Contents

Section 1: Governing Platforms

Decentralized Online Social Networks: Technological and Organizational 
Choices and Their Public Value Trade-offs, Mathilde Sanders and José van 
Dijck

Platform cooperatives as an additional strategy for empowering platform 
workers, Gabriël van Rosmalen

Governing the ‘Third Half of the Internet’: The Dynamics of Human and 
AI-assisted Content Moderation, Cedric Waterschoot

Constitutional Aspects of Trusted Flaggers in The Netherlands, Jacob van 
de Kerkhof

Interview with Catalina Goanta, by Taylor Annabell

Section 2: Governing Artificial Intelligence

Governing the Global Proliferation of Digital Surveillance Technologies: 
Lessons from the EU, Machiko Kanetake

The Governance of Generative AI: Three Conditions for Research and 
Policy, Fabian Ferrari

The Long-term Usefulness of Regulating AI in the EU, Lisanne Hummel

Interview with Natali Helberger, by Fabian Ferrari

Section 3: Governing Public Values

The Techno-Politics of Conversational AI’s Moral Agency: Examining 
ChatGPT and ErnieBot as Examples, Jing Zeng and Karin van Es

Doing Inclusion: Negotiation and Co-creation for People-centric Smart 
Cities, Michiel de Lange, Erna Ruijer and Krisztina Varró

Motherhood in the Datafied Welfare State: Investigating the Gendered and 
Racialized Enactment of Citizenship in Dutch Algorithmic Governance, 
Gerwin van Schie, Laura Candidatu and Diletta Huyskes

Fostering Autonomy in the Digital Classroom: Strengthening Schools’ 
Control over Data and Pedagogy through Collective Action, Niels Kerssens 
and Karin van Es

Interview with Janneke Gerards, by Viktorija Morozovaite

Concluding comments: An assessment of governing the digital society, 
Albert Meijer

##Endorsements

"In an age where platforms and AI are compromising the missions of our 
public sectors, the influence of tech tycoons has pervaded the political 
sphere and the world is aflood with digitally generated and sustained 
misinformation, how can – and should – digital societies be governed? 
This is the question this accessible, multi-disciplinary and 
comprehensive volume seeks to answer. It will be valuable to anyone, in 
academia and beyond, concerned with safeguarding our public values in 
the current tide of digitalization as a non-democratic and 
profit-seeking force." -- Tamar Sharon, Professor of Philosophy, 
Digitalization & Society, Radboud University Nijmegen

"This timely edited volume poses the urgent question of how digital 
societies can be effectively governed in an era where digital platforms 
and AI systems have become core socio-technical infrastructures. 
Grounded in robust theoretical frameworks, this book delivers rigorous, 
interdisciplinary research substantiated by empirical studies." -- Jo 
Pierson, Professor of Responsible Digitalisation & Head of School of 
Social Sciences, University Hasselt

"What is the meaning of “good governance” in democratic digital 
societies? How can these spheres foster safety, inclusion, and 
transparency? Drawing on diverse case studies, this excellent volume 
demonstrates that there are no simple answers; advancing one value often 
compromises another. Offering a rich account of the intersections 
between stakeholders and the technologies they build, manage, and 
consume, Governing the Digital Society is an essential resource for 
scholars and practitioners working to shape better digital futures." -- 
Limor Shifman, Professor at the Department of Communication and 
Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel & the Vice Dean 
of the Faculty of Social Sciences

"Governing the Digital Society examines whether digital societies can 
still be effectively governed. This volume brings together scholars 
exploring emerging issues—such as decentralized platforms and AI 
regulation – with those offering new analytical perspectives on existing 
debates, including content moderation and spyware. Through research and 
expert interviews, it offers critical insights into the future of 
digital governance. -- Robyn Caplan, Assistant Professor of Technology 
Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

Questions? Contact: (a.helmond /at/ uu.nl)

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