Opening Event with Robin Mansell

We are delighted to welcome Robin Mansell, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom as our keynote speaker at our Opening Event on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 6:00 p.m., in the Johannessaal at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Comparison, Contextualisation, & Critique: Insights for Digital Governance

This talk will reflect on how studies of selected features of digital governance are informed by comparative research employing a variety of methods. Drawing upon my recent experience of research on the contribution of misinformation, AI tools, and regulation to ‘troubled democracy’ in a global context, what lessons emerge concerning the way data-driven and qualitative studies are interpreted by country-based researchers, civil society actors and policy makers?  

Robin Mansell is Professor Emerita, Department of Media and Communications. Her research focuses on the political economy, and social and cultural aspects, of digital governance. She is Fellow, British Academy and Academia Europaea; Advisory Board member, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and Past-President, International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). She holds an Honorary Doctorate, University of Fribourg. Her books include The Need to Rename Tech (co-edited 2026); Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy (co-authored 2025); Handbook of Media and Communication Governance (2024, co-edited), and Advanced Introduction to Platform Economics (2020, co-authored).