Visions and values in the design of search engines are the focus of the habilitation thesis of ITA Senior Scientist Astrid Mager. Mager shifts the focus from the effects of search engines on society to socio-technical practices and power relations that are involved in the construction of search engines in the broader social context.
She places particular emphasis on the European context, where there has long been a debate about how to contain and regulate large tech companies like Google and their business practices, but also how alternative search engines can thrive in the shadow of large, commercial players.
'Only by understanding how search engines are shaped and negotiated in different cultural and socio-political contexts can we think about renegotiating search engines in the future – especially in Europe, where values such as data protection, independence and digital sovereignty are held high in EU policy,’ emphasises Mager, who presented her habilitation on 30 September. The science and technology researcher works at the interface between the internet and society and was elected to the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2018.