The Democratic Epistemic Capacities in the Age of Algorithms (DECA)

The Democratic Epistemic Capacities in the Age of Algorithms (DECA) project explores the systems, practices and issues related to the use of information at the various levels of society (individuals, institutions and digital infrastructures). The concept of epistemic capacities refers to the rights of citizens to receive reliable information, be heard, and participate in the production of information and knowledge relevant to society. At the societal level, the concept refers to the ability to make sustainable and informed political decisions.

DECA participates in the maintenance and development of the epistemic and democratic capacity of society. We investigate how individuals, communities and institutions defend themselves against the epistemic issues that are prevalent today. DECA’s key objective is to highlight epistemic inequalities between individuals and groups while amplifying the voices of marginalised groups.

More information

For more information about the project please visit the DECA web page.

The sub-studies of the Finnish Youth Research Society are located at the community and individual level, especially from the perspectives of immigration and multilingualism. The Finnish Youth Research Society is involved in two sub-studies of the DECA project:

National identities in the flux – online accounts on russianess and ukrainianess in 2022

National identities and categorisations have been among the key denominators in European politics for centuries. Despite the variation between countries, there has been a strong tendency of imagining and creating uniform nation-states and producing homogenising knowledge on their populations. However, particularly during crises, national and other collective identities have been re-negotiated. An essential group in these negotiations is the youth who face the complex and multi-ethnic realities in their everyday lives in educational and leisure settings. In current societies, collective identities are also constructed through technology-mediated discourses. Consequently, knowledge on experienced realities is produced and reflected in online platforms, often among large audiences.

In this study, we explore the changes and reformulations of Ukrainian and Russian identities in the context of Finnish society before and after the escalated Russian invasion in 2022. We will follow six young and active online citizens from Ukrainian and Russian backgrounds who have a key role as producers and distributors of knowledge on their collective identities.

Epistemic rights and capabilities of linguistic minorities

To be able to receive understandable information and to communicate with other members of society are among the key rights, and preconditions of societal participation and construction of epistemic capabilities. In this study, we investigate how lingual minorities living in Finland receive, use, and produce multilingual information. In co-operation with researchers from University of Eastern Finland, we study the epistemic rights and capabilities of recently migrated people from Russian and Ukrainian backgrounds. We are particularly interested in the use of digital platforms and machine translation ant their role in realisation of epistemic rights and in construction of epistemic capabilities of research participants. In addition to academic fields, our research work contributes to the development of reception services and multilingual digital services.