Digital Society

This theme explores the interaction between digital technologies, digital trust, and digital security across varied societal contexts. Given our increasing dependence on digital technologies, the issue of whether and how we can trust the systems we use and the people we interact with has become critical. This includes studying the socio-technical aspects of individual and organisational cybersecurity, privacy and harm, social media, digital inclusion, online communities, and the digital divide on societal interactions and on citizens’ role in contemporary democracies.

The objective is to examine and address the societal changes brought about by digital advancements, including how we can understand the barriers to, and enablers of, trust in digital technologies, and how they affect societal institutions and citizens. Much of the work in this theme is driven by our Centre for Digital Trust and Society, an Academic Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security Research, which examines what trust and security could, and should, look like in a digital era, alongside exploring how digital transformation is reshaping societal norms, cultural practices, and political engagement, as well as the ethical and equality issues such technologies raise.