Resonate Late: It’s All Digital

The theme for this year’s ESRC Festival of Social Science was ‘Our Digital Lives’, and we decided to explore some of the impacts of growing digitalisation at our Resonate Late, ‘It’s All Digital’. We headed to the Chapter House at Coventry Cathedral and, fuelled by soup from Miss Ellie’s, we settled in for some talks.

First up, we had Dr Jessica Sutherland from the Department of Politics discussing Democracy in the Age of AI. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies that can create, alter, and promote content may have the power to transform our political landscape, for better or for worse. In this talk, Jessica introduced us to some of the benefits and threats that AI technologies pose to democracy and democratic values by drawing on examples from the last year, including the threat of misinformation and manipulation.

This was followed by Professor Mirko Draca, from the Department of Economics, who introduced us to developments in technology that have allowed for greater understanding of economic history. Mirko described the latest work of economic historians in tackling topics as diverse as the industrial revolution, colonialism, technological change and Britain's favourite topic - World War II.

After a short break, we enjoyed a panel discussion about Digital Divides and Health. From Warwick, we had Dr Meg Davis and Dr Bernard Koomson, who discussed the work of their research project ‘Human Rights in the Digital Age’. Anna Studman, from the Ada Lovelace Institute, introduced us to the research they are conducting into socioeconomic divides in healthcare access. Plus, Laura Waller from Coventry City Council’s Digital Inclusion Services and Inclusion team, along with James Gough from WATCH, a charity based in Hillfields, brought a local perspective to the talk.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in-person and online for this fascinating event! If you missed it, you can catch up below!