PARALLEL SESSIONS ROUND III & IV

Perspectives on the Impact of Digitalisation

You can choose one of these sessions in round III (14:10 - 14:50h) and one in round IV (15:15-15:55h) as part of the optional programme. Subscribing for the sessions is only possible via the event app. You will receive a download instruction and personal login code after your registration for Synergy conference 2019.
 

• AI at work
• Wanted: righteous readers
• Toward common RDM
• Legal personhood for robots?
• Combining text and tables
• Digitalisation: new crimes and new research methods

 

AI AT WORK

Developments in algorithmic technologies have allowed for high impact changes in social and organizational life, and work in particular. The use of algorithmic technologies at work is associated with the challenges that touch upon issues such as interdisciplinary collaboration, ethics and (un)learning. We invite researchers from different disciplines to discuss how to approach the research on algorithmic technologies at work in an interdisciplinary manner. To this end, we will a) introduce important themes around the impact of AI on work, b) have small groups to jointly identify the most promising and pressing research questions, and c) integrate the results of the discussion into a collaborative document, listing ideas with topics, methods and approaches for studying AI at work.

Speakers: prof. Marleen Huysman - Head of KIN Research Group/KIN Center for Digital Innovation and Head of Information, Logistics & Innovation Department, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | dr. Anastasia Sergeeva - Assistant Professor with a research focus on digital technologies and their impact on work practices, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | dr. Mohammad Rezazade Mehrizi - Assistant Professor with a research focus on artificial intelligence and organizational and professional learning, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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WANTED: RIGHTEOUS READERS

SHOW US THAT YOU ARE NOT BIASED!

In this session we invite you to test your objectivity. We ask you to judge the literary quality of a number of novels and excerpts of novels. We use the results of the National Reader Survey and other results from our digital humanities project, The Riddle of Literary Quality, to show how general readers in the Netherlands judge these novels and where their biases lie. How does your opinion compare to the general opinion of these readers? How has their opinion been influenced by publishers? Are you the kind of reader who will bravely acknowledge the value of a novel even when publishers, critics, and peers disagree? You may be surprised by the outcome. We expect that this session is not just interesting for those who appreciate literary texts, but also for those who would like to see how they deal with bias in their everyday life.

Speakers: dr. Corina Koolen - Postdoc, Huygens ING | prof. Dr Karina van Dalen-Oskam - Hoofd afdeling Letterkunde, Huygens ING; hoogleraar Computationele literatuurwetenschap, Universiteit van Amsterdam

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TOWARD COMMON RDM

CREATING SYNERGY IN SSH RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT (RDM) TRAINING AND SUPPORT

In both social sciences and humanities, great training and support materials have been developed to help scientists with good RDM. However, cross-domain exchange about best practices is often limited or missing. This interactive workshop aims to change that! We highlight recent RDM training and support initiatives from both domains and discuss how they can be used and aligned. The CESSDA Data Management Expert Guide and the PARTHENOS project are taken as a starting point for group discussions focusing on researchers & data stewards and trainers. Both groups will be stimulated to discuss how the SSH materials can be best utilized and what is missing to create even better RDM support. The workshop will finish with a plenary round-up summarizing the group discussion results and future steps.

Speakers: Ricarda Braukmann - Program Leader Social Sciences, Data Archiving and Networked Services, DANS-KNAW | Ellen Leenarts - Program Leader Training and Consultancy, Data Archiving and Networked Services, DANS-KNAW | Francesca Morselli - Information Scientist, Data Archiving and Networked Services, DANS-KNAW

N.B. The duration of this session is 90 minutes. You can only start this session in round III and will not be able to follow another session in round IV.

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LEGAL PERSONHOOD FOR ROBOTS?

Artificially intelligent agents (robots) can take increasingly autonomous decisions and they can be programmed to imitate human behaviour, including expressing emotions. Self-driving cars can be involved in accidents and fully autonomous weapons in military operations. What does all of this mean for moral responsibility and legal liability? Many legal systems, including the EU, are thinking about legal personhood for robots as a possible answer. Should robots be awarded legal personhood?Participants are invited to debate this question, with a vote at the end.The session offers the opportunity to exchange ideas and to critically reflect on the desirability of the current political proposals. It may also serve as a starting point for future cooperation.

Speakers: dr. Caroline Cauffman - Associate Professor of Consumer, Competition and Contract Law, Maastricht University (Faculty of Law) | dr. Antonia Waltermann - Assistant Professor of Legal Theory, Maastricht University (Faculty of Law)

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COMBINING TEXT AND TABLES

MIXED METHODS FOR QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

A current divide cutting across the humanities and social sciences (SSH) is the orientation towards qualitative and quantitative research. While both quantitative and qualitative methods are used, research questions are rarely answered using both methods, despite various examples of ‘mixed methods’ or ‘multimethod’ applications in both academic and government-driven research.

In this session, we assess the benefits of multimethod research and discuss current obstacles through break-out groups. State-of-the-art examples from the KNAW Humanities Cluster and CLARIAH will be used to kickstart the brainstorm. We will look at how a mix of data sources influences research and what infrastructure and best-practices can aid in making this process more fluid. We’ll bring post-its, you bring ideas and experiences.

Speakers: prof. dr. Ulbe Bosma - professor of International Comparative Social History, IISG / Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | dr. Adina Nerghes - Postdoctoral Researcher Digital Humanities Lab, Humanities Cluster | dr. Rombert Stapel - Postdoctoral Researcher Medieval, Social and Economic History, IISG | dr. Richard Zijdeman - Chief Data Officer / Senior Researcher, IISG / University of Stirling | dr. Marieke van Erp - Team Leader Digital Humanities Lab, Humanities Cluster

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DIGITALISATION: NEW CRIMES AND NEW RESEARCH METHODS

Like the world around us, crime is rapidly becoming digital. Cybercrime is however even more elusive than ‘classical’ crime, with police registration lagging, victims often not aware of being targeted, and offenders based all over the world. What does this mean for the study of crime, for our understanding of its etiology and law enforcement?

At the same time, digitisation offers unique opportunities for the study of crime, such as the availability of computer images or the tracking of police patrols through electronic devices. This is particularly so for cybercrime, as every cybercrime leaves a ‘forensic’ trace.

In this masterclass, a number of specialists discuss how digitisation has both complicated and advanced criminological research. Apart from generic methodological issues, we discuss examples from the anthropological study of robberies using CCTV images, the study of cybercriminal networks using police and court files, and the study of cyberoffender behavior using honeypot research on the dark web.

Speakers: Catrien Bijleveld - director Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, NSCR | Rutger Leukfeldt - senior researcher NSCR (cluster coordinator cybercrime) and lector Haagse Hogeschool | Stijn Ruiter - senior researcher NSCR and professor Utrecht University | Marie Lindegaard - senior researcher NSCR and associate professor University of Kopenhagen

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