Technology and the Social Contract: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations

This paper focuses on analysing how the democratic key concepts, such as citizenship or rights, are used to develop the social contract from the perspective of technology. Drawing on theory on the social contract and empirical examples on recent political developments and outputs in technology politics, the paper explores how technology - as a policy field, a rapidly developing political issue and with its stakeholders - potentially changes political concepts. Furthermore, it seeks to address the issue of technology as a prominent feature for shaping our contemporary social contracts by referring to the political and democratic implications of digital technology, specifically AI. Addressing in particular the democratic and inclusive potential of social contract theory, the paper asks, how are digital technologies challenging, or advancing this potential, what kind of new questions it might open up, and what kind of implications these may have from the perspective of power and agency.