LECTORAAT CHANGE MANAGEMENT – De Haagse Hogeschool

What do you do at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS)?

I am a senior researcher at the Centre of Expertise Digital Operations & Finance | De Haagse Hogeschool. At the Change Management research group I work on the projects PureAI and Restore Connection. At the Platform Economy research group I work on how to incentivize user communities to migrate to (hybrid local) digital ecosystems with viable and circular business models.

What is your background?

My career started in newspaper journalism. After 15 years as an editor, my crowdfunded investigative journalism project on news media ownership transformed into a PhD trajectory at the business school RSM in Rotterdam (Erasmus University). I also was a researcher (and lecturer) at the Utrecht Journalism School (HU), Rathenau Instituut and most recently Utrecht University.

In my work I try to raise awareness on how we can ‘democratize platforms’ by decentralizing power in technology and organizations via existing and future (decentralized and open source) alternatives to big tech. I loved to work in stakeholder collaboration research projects with partners such as Waag, PublicSpaces, SURF, public broadcasters and libraries and several universities.

What kind of research do you do?

My expertise is in qualitative research on (social) media ownership, business models, and platform governance. In the pursuit of more digital autonomy, I love to work with European media, civil society and public organizations to envision and jointly develop ‘our own’ (local) digital infrastructure. At THUAS I would love to continue to explore how we can anchor democratic public values, trust and the provision of quality content in our future ‘public’ digital sphere.