Lina Rahm

About me

I'm Assistant Professor in the History of Media and Environment with specialization in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems, funded by the WASP-HS Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanities and Society.

My research is focused on sociotechnical and educational imaginaries. Specifically, I have mapped out the genealogy of the digital citizen as an entanglement of automation, education and citizenship. Empirically, my research spans from the 1950s up until today.

Projects

I have studied how automation and AI has contributed to educational governance. Currently, I am invested in the following project founded by WASP-HS

AI Futures and Pasts: Educational and Ecotechnological Imaginaries

Education has always been a structural and political way to prepare citizens for the (technological) future. Right now, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a key technology that will change the future radically in all areas of life. Education and knowledge about AI are seen as important to develop trust in these systems but also for democratic decision-making. Technological explicability (explanation and transparency) is also dependent on the general skillset and knowledge of the citizenry. As such, many educational stakeholders, at different levels, are considering how to best convey the necessary knowledge and skills, to the general population, in order to prepare them for a future where AI is ubiquitous. Education and new knowledge are often presented as a kind of universal solution to technical problems (closely connected to the concept of lifelong learning), which often escape problematization, and are only seen as a democratic solution. Therefore, I want to put notions of education and new knowledge under critical scrutiny. What kind of knowledge is seen as important? How should citizens acquire new knowledge? How is the inherently complex idea of an AI-fueled future presented to the public, and how does education (in a broad sense) function pedagogically to produce individual and collective understandings of AI, AI-related knowledge, anticipated competencies, power, and the future of citizenship?

Affiliations

Education and the European Digital Agenda: Switzerland, Germany and Sweden after 1970
The Posthumanities Hub
Reconfigurations of Educational In/Equality in a Digital World (RED)