Browsing by Subject "Neue Medien"

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Digital agriculture: socio-technical-physical interactions and the transformation of the rural world(s)
(2024) Hidalgo Jaramillo, Francisco Javier; Regina, Birner
The social and environmental challenges that humanity faces today to produce food, fuel, and fibers in a sustainable and fair way call for a transformation. Digital agriculture has been embraced with much enthusiasm by many as the contour of such transformation. Proponents of these technologies, including international organizations as well as numerous researchers focused on innovations, describe this innovation as a paradigm shift. Associated with increased efficiencies and enhanced communication, digital agriculture is commonly depicted by these groups as the advent of a more sustainable and ‘smart’ future. Other groups, including grassroots organizations, socio-environmental activists, and critical scholars, on the other hand, see digital agriculture with skepticism and concern. They refer to the entrenchment of digital agriculture in productivist, capitalist, and extractivist forms of production, and a linkage with the consolidation of corporate power and state surveillance. Using a critical and systems approach, this thesis scrutinizes these arguments, examining the socio-technical transitions that emerge from agricultural digitalization, and discerns their societal and environmental consequences. This examination is relevant given that despite digital agriculture can transform the face of agricultural systems, it is not yet clear in what way. The emergent condition of digitalization requires this analysis to inform responsible governance of this innovation. Critical studies have made important contributions to this understanding. However, the complexity of digital agriculture calls for additional conceptual frameworks to be incorporated. The coffee production system has been selected as a case study in this thesis. This selection responds to the global scope of this system and the relevance that it represents for rural development. To set the picture: coffee is one of the most traded agricultural products in the world. Yet, more than 70% of it is produced by smallholder farmers who receive less than 10% of its final value. Meanwhile, coffee farmers experience manifold social and environmental challenges that threaten their livelihoods and the sustainability of the whole system. Poverty, power and information asymmetries, and climate change are among them. Against this background, this thesis takes the perspective of coffee as a crop, a cultural system, and a value chain. Following a qualitative research approach, the analysis is informed by a theoretical literature review and data from semi-structured interviews with developers and users of digital technologies. The thesis is divided into three studies (chapters 2, 3, and 4) which together present a critical analysis applied at three scales: 1) global, 2) value chain, and 3) local. Across these studies, three main socio-technical aspects of digital agriculture are addressed. First, global governance of digital agriculture and its consequences for farmers’ rights and capabilities. Second, the consequences of different technical assemblages for the sustainability of agricultural systems. Third, local forms of interaction with digital technologies. After presenting and introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 presents a literature review on the political dynamics of digital agriculture. Drawing upon an emancipatory conceptualization of agency and sovereignty, this chapter is focused on describing two main forms of governance: governance through and governance of digital technologies in the context of agriculture. This description is followed by an analysis of the multiple effects of these two forms of governance on farmer’s sovereignty and agency. The analysis revealed that the governance of digital agriculture is an assemblage of multiple agencies of human and cyber agents (smart devices, automated machines, algorithms). Socio-technical interactions in this assemblage result simultaneously in sovereignty and agency gains and losses for farmers - a complex set of power transactions in which farmers participate many times inadvertently. Together with oppressive forms of governance associated with corporate technological lock-in, data extractivism, and a surveilling state, there is evidence also of a democratic facet of digitalization. This facet is integrated by open-collaborative networks, data cooperatives, cyberactivism, and open-source software. With this analysis, the study aimed to understand how the political position of farmers is affected by digitalization, understanding that this process is occurring in a context of structural power imbalance. A socio-technical perspective is applied in Chapter 3 to explore 20 digital tools designed for the coffee value chain, examining the pathways toward sustainability (environmental, social, and economic) promoted by these tools. The socio-technical perspective mainly proposes that social and technical systems shape each other in reciprocal interactions. Building on this idea, the chapter examines the technical attributes of these tools (functionality, technologies included, operation rules, information flow). Subsequently, it analyzes the consequences of these attributes in terms of three broad social dynamics: 1) knowledge and value systems represented, 2) power structures, and 3) possibilities for using these tools effectively. The forms in which these social dynamics are shaped by these tools, in turn, yield specific sustainability outcomes. These include the kind of production systems that are endorsed - and not endorsed -, the access to these technologies and their benefits, and the way in which social inequalities and power asymmetries are addressed - or not addressed -. The data for this analysis comes from interviews with 15 developers of these tools and secondary information. The analysis shows that technical attributes play a fundamental role in directing the kinds of pathways toward sustainability that are made available for agricultural systems. Additionally, it shows that in some cases, rather than a revolution, digital agriculture can look like business as usual but tweaked. Chapter 4 presents a local perspective on digitalization. Using data from interviews with 73 households in two selected coffee growing communities in Colombia, this chapter explores how they engage with digital technologies. The study parts from the idea that important reality-design gaps in digital agriculture result from a lack of understanding and inclusion of local worldviews around digital technologies and farming. Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach was adopted as the conceptual framework for the analysis. This framework posits that resources only become assets when they can be used by individuals to accomplish the life they value. For that reason, the analysis in this chapter was focused on first, understanding the elements that configure a valuable life for these communities, and next, understanding how they use digital technologies to support the accomplishment of this life. The underlying values of this local process of technological appropriation were compared with the values represented by broader narratives of digital agriculture. This offered a picture of the negotiations and tensions that occur when contrasting visions of farming, digitalization, and a desirable future, interface. Drawing upon a relational perspective, the local appropriation process is characterized by multiple negotiations between farmers’ personal and collective goals, situated knowledge, institutional programs, and the agency of non-humans (e.g. land, plants, animals, machines). From these interactions emerge distinctive forms of digitalization and non-digitalization. This process of local appropriation revealed the critical view of farmers and agency, for example, by following a digitalization pathway that profoundly diverges from dominant imaginaries and discourses around digital agriculture. By applying a systems approach and by integrating three frameworks into critical scholarship - (1) emancipatory conceptualization of agency and sovereignty, (2) Sen´s capabilities approach, and (3) a relational approach - this thesis presents evidence of the complexity of socio-technical-physical interactions that lead to certain broad-mainstream and local-everyday digitalization pathways. These pathways, in turn, present particular societal consequences, such as the kind of agricultural worlds that are made possible, the interests that are represented in them, and the possibilities of participation for different social groups. More than a single trajectory, digital agriculture is a space of multiplicity and permanent emergence, also for reproducing current – not necessarily sustainable - models. For this reason, this thesis calls for abandoning notions of immutability, universality, and uniformity in development discourses, perspectives of rurality, and the generation of new technologies. Instead, it proposes to integrate a critical and systems-relational perspective into inclusionary innovation research and practice.
A gendered perspective on online privacy and self-disclosure
(2024) Frener, Regine; Trepte, Sabine
In research on online privacy and self-disclosure, gender is commonly included as a potentially predictive variable. The results are heterogeneous and sometimes controversial; explanations are often lacking or based on stereotypical assumptions. With this dissertation, I seek to provide a gender-focused perspective on online privacy and self-disclosure by taking a closer look at gender effects in privacy-related outcomes, studying the implementation of gender as a research variable, and investigating how gender is related to people’s inherent need for privacy. To this end, I present a short introduction in the first chapter, followed by four publications: a book chapter on privacy and gender (Study 1), a systematic literature review (Study 2), an empirical investigation of gender effects in privacy behavior (Study 3), and the development of the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S; Study 4). In Study 1, the book chapter, I summarize key theoretical advancements in gender and privacy research in line with the feminist movement. Further, empirical findings on gender disparities are presented from a communication science perspective. I discuss the ongoing gender-based digital divide as well as risks associated with automatic gender categorization. Lastly, I address the problems of conceptualizing gender as a binary, static variable, and propose alternative perspectives for more equitable treatment. In Study 2, my co-author Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte and I examine how scholars in the field of online privacy incorporate gender into their research. For n = 107 articles reporting gender effects (or a lack thereof), we assess whether gender theory is included, to what extent it is referred to, and what function it serves. The results show that in most studies, gender is undertheorized, resulting in reduced explanatory power and the risk of gender essentialism. To meet the need for gender theorization in online privacy research we identified in Study 2, I present an empirical investigation of the social web gendered privacy model (Thelwall, 2011) in Study 3. The model aims to link gender differences in online privacy concerns, data protection behavior and online self-disclosure and explain them via gender differences in offline factors. Using longitudinal data (n = 1,043), I found partial support for the relationships between the privacy-related variables as well as for the transfer from offline to online contexts. The expected gender differences did not arise consistently, which challenges the model’s claim that women constitute an especially vulnerable population regarding social media usage. To offer added value for the broader field of privacy-related research, my co-authors Jana Dombrowski and Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte and I present the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S) in Study 4. The NFP-S is a concise measure of the need for privacy as a personality trait, developed to be applied in any context. Against the theoretical backdrop of Burgoon’s (1982) privacy dimensions, we propose a second-order model with informational, psychological, and physical need for privacy as the first-order factors. In two large-scale surveys (Study 1: n1 = 3,278; n2 = 1,226; Study 2: N = 1,000), the scale was validated with regard to relevant personality traits, privacy-related cognitive criteria and behaviors as well as socio-demographic variables. With the goal of disentangling (biological) sex and gender, we include self-assessed femininity and masculinity. We find that congruity between participants’ perception of their femininity/masculinity and their sex is related to a higher need for privacy. In the overall discussion, I combine insights from the studies, provide ideas for future research, and offer societal and practical implications. Taken together, the four studies contribute to the field of online privacy by emphasizing the psychological perspective of gender as a socially constructed, multifaceted, and dynamic construct. Adopting this view is desirable for privacy researchers, as it helps to better understand privacy-related attitudes and decision-making, hence increasing overall validity. Furthermore, a differentiated understanding of gender is needed to prevent oversimplifications and stereotyping and to promote ethical and fair research.
The psychology of privacy: Analyzing processes of media use and interpersonal communication
(2017) Dienlin, Tobias; Trepte, Sabine
What is the psychology of privacy? How do people perceive privacy? Why do people disclose personal information on the Internet, and what does this reveal about our their personalities? With four studies, this cumulative dissertation discusses potential answers to these questions. Study 1 (“The Privacy Process Model”) proposes a new privacy theory, the so-called Privacy Process Model (PPM). The PPM states that privacy consists of three major elements: the privacy context, the privacy perception, and the privacy behavior. In order to balance the three elements people constantly engage in a privacy regulation process, which can be either explicit/conscious or implicit/subconscious. Through concrete examples of new digital media, several implications of the PPM are demonstrated. Study 2 (“Is the Privacy Paradox a Relic of the Past?”), which is co-authored by Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte, analyzes the privacy paradox through the results of an online questionnaire with 579 respondents from Germany. By adopting a theory of planned behavior-based approach, the results showed that self-disclosure could be explained by privacy intentions, privacy attitudes, and privacy concerns. These findings could be generalized for three different privacy dimensions: informational, social, and psychological privacy behaviors. Altogether, Study 2 therefore suggests that the privacy paradox does not exist. Study 3 (“An Extended Privacy Calculus Model for SNSs”), co-authored by Prof. Dr. Miriam J. Metzger, builds upon the results of Study 2 and investigates whether psychological antecedents can explain not only online self-disclosure but also online self-withdrawal. Using a privacy calculus-based approach, the study analyzes data from a U.S.-representative online sample with 1,156 respondents. The results showed that self-disclosure could be explained both by privacy concerns and expected benefits. In addition, self-withdrawal could also be predicted by both privacy concerns and privacy self-efficacy. In conclusion, Study 3 demonstrates that perceived benefits, privacy self-efficacy, and privacy concerns together predict both online self-disclosure and online self-withdrawal. Study 4 (“Predicting the Desire for Privacy”), also co-authored by Miriam J. Metzger, analyzes the relationship between the desire for privacy and different facets of personality. In Study 4a, an online questionnaire with 296 respondents was conducted and in Study 4b, a laboratory experiment with 87 participants was run. The results of the questionnaire showed several significant relationships: For example, respondents who reported lacking integrity and being more shy, less anxious, and more risk averse were all more likely to desire privacy. The experiment showed a statistical trend that participants who had written an essay about past negative behaviors were more likely to express an increased desire for privacy from other people; in addition, an implicit association test (IAT) showed that participants whose IAT results implied higher lack of integrity also desired more privacy from government surveillance. In conclusion, the results evidence that the desire for privacy relates with several aspects of personality and, notably, also with personal integrity. In the overarching discussion, the results of the aforementioned studies are combined in order to provide an updated picture of privacy. This picture suggests that online self-disclosure is not paradoxical but explainable. Being able to understand online privacy behaviors is important; however, this is not only because the Internet has paramount importance in social and professional contexts, but also because people’s desire for privacy can reveal central aspects of personality, such as one’s own personal integrity. Finally, several societal implications are discussed. It is argued that modern societies should try to design new cultural artifacts about privacy, update old and obsolete behavioral patterns with regard to privacy, foster a better understanding of the conceptual nature of privacy, work toward new and more protective privacy laws, and aim to leverage overall privacy literacy.