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 deepfakes within the project “Digitalization in dialogue (digilog@bw)”.

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 is studying the “Ethical and societal implications of ‘deepfakes’ and opportunities for their regulation” within the project "Digitalization in dialogue (digilog@bw)".

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

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; 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

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

Deepfakes als Gefahr für die Demokratie: Wie digitale Bild- und Tonfälschungen unser Vertrauen untergraben, Interview mit Ulla Ebner für die Ö1-Sendereihe Digital.Leben, 6. Juli 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

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

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’