Maria Pawelec

Society, Culture and Technological Change

Maria Pawelec studied Politics and Public Administration and Contemporary European Studies in Konstanz, Istanbul, Bath and Berlin. She then worked for the Robert Bosch Foundation. In 2016, she joined the IZEW as a Research Associate. She is currently researching the prevention of digital desinformation campaigns within the projects digilog@bw and PREVENT, with a special focus on deepfakes.

Career

Maria Pawelec studied Politics and Public Administration and Contemporary European Studies in Konstanz, Istanbul, Bath and Berlin. She then worked in the department for “International Relations Europe and its Neighbors” of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart. From 2016-2019, she worked as a Research Associate at the IZEW on the project “Ethical implications of IT-export to sub-Saharan Africa (ELISA)”. Additionally, she supported the project Privacy-Arena in and coordinated the preparation of an expert report on behalf of the German Bundestag on the social and psychological impact of technological surveillance. In 2020, she worked on the project “Technological Innovation: Social Science and Ethical Analyses on Governance (TANGO)”. Since 2021, Maria Pawelec has been studying the “Ethical and societal implications of ‘deepfakes’ and opportunities for their regulation” within the project "Digitalization in dialogue (digilog@bw)". Since 2022, she is researching the prevention of digital desinformation campaign within the project PREVENT.

Publications

Monographs

Pawelec, Maria; Bieß, Cora (2021): Deepfakes — Technikfolgen und Regulierungsfragen aus ethischer und sozialwissenschaftlicher Perspektive. Mit einer interaktiven Lehreinheit von Cora Bieß. [Deepfakes —Technology assessment and questions of regulation from an ethical and social sciences perspective. With an interactive teaching unit by Cora Bieß.] Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Journal articles

Pawelec, Maria (2022): Deepfakes and Democracy (Theory): How Synthetic Audio-Visual Media for Disinformation and Hate Speech Threaten Core Democratic Functions. In: Digital Society 1, 19.
Schelenz, Laura; Pawelec, Maria (2021): Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) critique. In: Information Technology for Development 27.
Schopp, Kerstin; Schelenz, Laura; Heesen, Jessica; Pawelec, Maria (2019): Ethical Questions of Digitalization in the Global South. Perspectives on Justice and Equality. In: Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis TATuP 28 (2), pp. 11-16.
Pawelec, Maria; Grimm, Sonja (2015): Does National Identity Matter? Political Conditionality and the crucial case of Serbia's (Non) Co-operation with the ICTY. In: Journal of Common Market Studies 52 (6), pp. 1290-1306.

Book chapters

Pawelec, Maria (2022): Deepfakes als Chance für die Demokratie? (Deepfakes as an opportunity for democracy?) In: Alexander Bogner, Michael Decker, Michael Nentwich, Constanze Scherz (eds.): Digitalisierung und die Zukunft der Demokratie - Beiträge aus der Technikfolgenabschätzung (Digitalisation and the future of democracy - Contributions from technology assessment), pp. 89-101.
Pawelec, Maria; Schopp, Kerstin; Heesen, Jessica (2021): Information justice in Africa: Insights on Information Ethics connected to Nelson Mandela's thinking. In: Coetzee Bester, Johannes Britz, Rafael Capurro und Rachel Fischer (Eds.): Nelson Mandela – A Reader on Information Ethics in cooperation with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, pp. 87-132.
Baur-Ahrens, Andreas; Hagendorff, Thilo; Pawelec, Maria (2017): Kryptografie. In: Joel Baumann and Jörn Lamla (ed.): Privacy Arena. Kontroversen um Privatheit im digitalen Zeitalter. Kassel: Kassel University Press, pp. 40-55.

Baur-Ahrens, Andreas; Hagendorff, Thilo; Pawelec, Maria (2017): Big Data. In: Joel Baumann and Jörn Lamla (ed.): Privacy Arena. Kontroversen um Privatheit im digitalen Zeitalter. Kassel: Kassel University Press, pp. 96-113.
Upadhyay, Dinoj Kumar; Pawelec, Maria (2016): State-building and police reform in Afghanistan: EU and US engagement in comparative perspective. In: Ingo Peters (ed.): The European Union's Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective: Beyond the "Actorness" and "Power" Debate. London: Routledge, pp. 165-186.

Project reports

Pawelec, Maria, Cora Bieß and Alexander Orlowski (2021): Ethisch und sozial wünschenswerte Technikgovernance fördern - Points to Consider zu Technikgovernance; Handlungsempfehlungen zum Autonomen Fahren und zu Deepfakes. [Promoting ethically and societally desirable technology governance - Points to Consider concerning technology governance; recommendations on autonomous driving and deepfakes.] Tübingen: IZEW, Materials on Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities, Volume 17. ISBN: 978-3-935933-19-3

Further contributions

Pawelec, Maria (2022): What are deepfakes and why do they matter? Backgrounder published as part of the European-Israeli Forum for Technology and Society, a collaboration between the Israel Public Policy Institute (IPPI) and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Ammicht Quinn, Regina; Heesen, Jessica; Pawelec, Maria; Hauschild, Alexander (with the collaboration of Baur, A.; Booz, S.; Burkhardt, A.; Erben, S.; Gabel, F.; Grote, T.; Hagendorff, T.; Krüger, M.; Nadolski, S.; Spindler, M.; Tilling, A.; Zinsmaier, J.; 2022): Social and psychological effects of technologized observation. Expert report for the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB), compiled in 2017, incorporated into the report of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment (18th Committee): Observation technologies in civil security - opportunities and challenges. Bundestag Printed Paper 20/4200. Berlin.
Pawelec, Maria (2022): Was sind Deepfakes? [What are Deepfakes?] Newsletter contribution. In: in.media.res: die Kreativregion Stuttgart [newsletter of the creative region Stuttgart].
Schelenz, Laura; Pawelec, Maria (2021): Rassismus, Sexismus und Diskriminierung durch Technik [Racism, sexism and discrimination through technology]. Spotlight text. In: digilog@bw – Digitalisierung im Dialog [digilog@bw – Digitalization in dialogue].
Bieß, Cora; Pawelec, Maria (2020): Do deepfakes (really) harm democracy? Why the debate about deepfakes in politics often falls short. In: BedenkZeiten-Blog.
Pawelec, Maria (2020): International solidarity in times of crisis. In: BedenkZeiten-Blog.
Pawelec, Maria (2018): How Bridge International's Tech-Driven For-Profit Schools in Africa may Reinforce Global Power Inequalities. In: Sicherheitspolitik-Blog.
Heesen, Jessica; Pawelec, Maria; Schelenz, Laura (2017): Development, Security, and the Role of ICT in the Global South. In: Sicherheitspolitik-Blog.

Interviews and media appearances

Wie groß ist die Gefahr von Deepfakes? [How big is the danger posed by deepfakes really?], Podcast by the project digilog@bw with Uwe Gradwohl, 17 December 2021.
Deepfakes als Gefahr für die Demokratie: Wie digitale Bild- und Tonfälschungen unser Vertrauen untergraben [Deepfakes as a threat to democracy: How digital image and audio fakes undermine our trust], interview with Ulla Ebner for the Ö1-series Digital.Leben, 6 July 2021.
#meetdigilog: Von Politik bis Pornografie: Gefahren (und Chancen) von Deepfakes [#meetdigilog: From politics to pornography: Risks (and opportunities) of deepfakes], live on Instagram, discussion with Sabine Faller, ZKM, 15 April 2021.
Von Politik bis Pornografie: Gefahren (und Chancen) von Deepfakes [From politics to pornography: Risks (and opportunities) of deepfakes], digiloglounge, YouTube-interview with Sabine Faller, ZKM, 8 April 2021 (with Jessica Heesen).
Audio-Deepfakes: Was, wenn wir unseren Ohren nicht mehr trauen können? (Audio Deepfakes: What happens if we can no longer trust our ears?) Feature by Julius Stucke in Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 3 Dezember 2020 (with Cora Bieß).

Talks and presentations

Ethical implications of immersive technologies and deepfakes in art and culture. Keynote together with Céline Gressel at the workshop "Immersive technologies in arts and culture" of the Goethe Instituts, 14-18 November 2022 in Taschkent/Usbekistan. Keynote online. 17 November 2022. Slides.
Deepfakes, Demokratie und öffentliche Kommunikation: Gefahren und Chancen [Deepfakes, Democracy and Public Communication: Challenges and Opportunities], NTA9-TA21 Conference "Digital, direkt, demokratisch? Technikfolgenabschätzung und die Zukunft der Demokratie" [Digital, direct, democratic? Technology assessment and the future of democracy] of the German network for Technology Assessment (NTA) and the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna/virtual event, 11 May 2021.
Deepfakes as a blessing and a curse – and how to govern their use in public communication, DACH 21 - Three-Country Conference on Communication Science "#Communication #(R)Evolution: Changing Communication in a Digital Society", Zurich/virtual event, 9 April 2021.
Encouraging the Development of Ethically and Societally ‘Desirable’ Technologies Through Innovation Governance, ECPR Virtual General Conference 2020 (European Consortium for Political Research), virtual event, 27 August 2020 (with Cora Bieß and Alexander Orlowski).
Governing technology innovation processes for ethically “desirable” societal transformation EASST/4S 2020 conference (European Association for the Study of Science and Technology), Prague/virtual, 18 August 2020 (with Cora Bieß and Alexander Orlowski).

Completed projects

digilog@bw (2021-2022, Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts): 'Digitalization in Dialogue'
TANGO (2020, BMBF): ‘Technological Innovation: Social Science and Ethical Analyses on Governance (TANGO)’
ELISA (2016-2019): ‘Ethical Implications of IT-Exports to Sub-Sahara Africa‘
Expert report on behalf of the German Bundestag on the social and psychological impact of technological surveillance (2017)
Privacy-Arena (2016, BMBF): ‘Research Project for a Cartography and Analysis of the Privacy-Arena’