Role of Technology in Addressing Societal Challenges - New Governance

The project explores the different frameworks, and the possible consequences of limited engagement with data and technology, for delivery of the ultimate societal goals. Proposals are then developed for more holistic and pluralist engagement when new regimes, in their different forms, are created.

This project will make an important contribution to scholarship regarding legal policy making, governance, regulation, legal theory, pluralism, private and public intersections and "wicked problems". The findings of this project will be of value to scholars, policy makers and activists in developing a more open and informed approach to choices which could be made, means by which they could be delivered, and to reaching more effective solutions to address societal challenges through a lens - direct or indirect - of data and technology.

The project's principal objective is to develop new theoretical approaches and practical paths which could be applied, at national and international level, substantively and structurally, to creating and operating regimes which address key societal challenges using data and technology.

The project's proposals will enable decision makers - irrespective of subject matter or starting point - to take a wide view of relevance, to engage widely with stakeholders and experts and to see nothing as unchallengeable or as the responsibility of another regime. The project will also explore the extent to which a hierarchy or overarching common goals could be created, such as stewardship and respect for the commons (or indeed private property), within which governance of data, technology and also ultimate societal goals could and should be delivered.

Much of the project is based on theory and desk based reviews of scholarship and of publicly available sources. It will consider legislation, treaties, case law, policy and activist work and governance and regulatory frameworks. It will engage with ongoing developments in judicial innovation, interpretation of legislation and application of regulatory approaches, notably regarding precaution and certainty. It will draw on the intersection between law, philosophy and science and the extent to which different approaches could and should be taken to rawer information and that which has been the subject of processing and refinement.

Complementing this, the study will carry out semi-structured qualitative interviews with research participants.

Interviews will be carried out online via TEAMS, and the interviews will be recorded using an encrypted dictaphone and then transcribed by the researcher. Before the transcribing is carried it, each participant will be accorded a legend (eg participant 1) and the transcript will be prepared on this basis. The transcripts will be provided to the interviewees via TEAMS in private subchannels for confirmation of accuracy before the data analysis stage commences.

Research participants will be individuals involved in creating and operating the regimes which are used as case studies. Abbe Brown anticipates interviewing each research participant once, although she will indicate that if future issues arise she may ask to speak to them again if they would be willing to do so, for clarification purposes.

Then, the data analysis phase will involve key word analysis of the transcripts based on questions asked, issues explored in the book, and from points arising in interview, in a grounded theory approach.