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This workshop aims at addressing a relevant and yet so far neglected aspect of corruption: how the newest technological developments might function both as a facilitator of corruption practices and, at the same time, might instead help to counter them. Investigations on how digital media can support corruption and related illegal activities have increased in the past years and continue to expand. Recent criminological research (Shelley 2014) has shown that transnational crime (e.g. trafficking in persons, arms, migrant smuggling, terrorism) heavily relies on the uses of digital media and technology more widely to facilitate its trade (Pyrooz et al 2015); money laundering linked to corrupt transactions has become easier due to technological advancements, as well as the use of cryptocurrencies which allows of pseudo-anonymous transactions (Reynolds and Irwin 2017). At the same time, research on strategies to counter corruption in the public sector argues that social media and mobile phones are relevant to empower citizens' monitoring capacity (Inuwa et al. 2019). Similarly, digital media platforms might enhance crowdsourcing and whistleblowing activities from the grassroots to promote transparency (Kossow 2020). With the due attention, machine learning applications might enable governmental and civil society actors to see corruption at work when it otherwise remains invisible, but even to predict the development of future corrupt behaviors (Arvik 2019). Through this workshop, we aim to bring together scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds to develop a nuanced understanding of how digital media, machine learning, and other types of recent technological developments can simultaneously support anti-corruption efforts and corruption practices. We invite papers linked (but not limited) to one or more of the following questions: Which are the methodological challenges of studying digital media, machine learning, and other types of recent technological developments in the framework of corruption and anti-corruption? What are the challenges anti-corruption activists face when developing their own digital media platforms, machine learning algorithms, and other technological supports to counter corruption? Which types of new challenges civil society actors, governmental agencies, and international organizations face due to the emergent forms of technologically mediated corruption? Which are the technological imaginaries that anti-corruption activists, governmental agencies, and international organizations develop about digital media, machine learning, and other types of recent technological developments? How do the most recent technological developments change their role according to the specific anti-corruption and/or corruption country context in which they are employed? How the use of digital media, machine learning, and other types of recent technological developments can change patterns of corruption and/or anti-corruption efforts? How can digital media employment, machine learning, and other types of recent technological developments in the framework of anti-corruption actions foster reactions in the world of corruption, bringing new developments in corruption practices? We welcome papers that employ qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research designs. Papers should be based on empirical research, but we are also open to submissions based on solid theoretical and methodological reflections on the overall workshop’s topic as well as policy-based contributions.
The workshop brings two strands of research together - one strand showing how technology facilitates corruption and how technology deters corruption - to compare their findings and cross-fertilize their knowledge. Ultimately, the workshop's objective is to develop a more situated understanding of machine learning applications and other types of recent technological developments when they entangle with anti-corruption efforts or when they are used to support corruption practices. Overall, the aim is to look at how these technologies change their role according to the context in which they are employed: from the large anti-corruption sector of governmental agencies and international institutions to the more fragmented world of grassroots anti-corruption efforts; from small bribery schemes within the public administration to the grand-corruption systems that involve corporations, financial institutions, and political parties. Simultaneously, the workshop seeks to develop a more fine-grained understanding of what the use of machine learning applications and other types of recent technological developments in the framework of anti-corruption actions can foster reactions in the world of corruption, bringing new developments in corruption practices. At the same, we are also interested in understanding which types of new challenges civil society actors, governmental agencies, and international organizations face due to the emergent forms of technologically mediated corruption. Workshop participants will come from different fields of study, such as political science, sociology, anthropology, law, economics, and have an interdisciplinary perspective on the workshop’s main theme. We expect the workshop to be of interest to scholars that gather around the ECPR academic community and, in particular, active in the following Standing Groups: Internet and Politics, Mobilization and Participation, and (Anti)-Corruption and Integrity. The latter, indeed, endorses the workshop and already experienced a keen interest in the workshop’s main theme during the last ECPR general section, with at least two panels that addressed issues like digital media, social media, big data, and Artificial Intelligence in contrasting (or favoring) corruption. Workshop participants will be both senior and junior scholars working in European and non-European academic institutions. We also aim to join forces and attract scholars who are also part of the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN). We expect most of the papers to be based on empirical research on the workshops’ main theme. However, we might have some theoretical reflections on the role of Artificial Intelligence and other newest technological developments in countering (or favoring) corruption. We plan to have an equal distribution of papers that deal, on the one hand, with technological development as leverage in the hands of anti-corruption actors – including civil society organizations and governmental agencies – and, on the other hand, of papers that consider technological development as a process that might favor the expansion of corruption practices. The workshop has been developed in close collaboration with Roxana Bratu (Sussex University) and it is also linked to the ERC-funded project BIT-ACT (GA 802362) whose PI is Alice Mattoni (University of Bologna).
Papers will be avaliable once proposal and review has been completed.