ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳

Dr Alison  Powell

Dr Alison Powell

Associate Professor

Department of Media and Communications

Room No
Room PEL.7.01J
Office Hours
By appointment on Student Hub
Connect with me

Languages
English, French
Key Expertise
Technology Design and Policy; Public Sector Technology; Digital Futures

About me

Dr Alison Powell is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ and serves as Programme Director for the MSc Media and Communications (Data and Society)

Alison’s research addresses the discourse, design and context for technologies in the public interest. Past projects have examined values and ethics in technology start-ups, the moral economy of software production, and the roles of citizens in smart cities. Current research focuses on democratic decision-making in data-driven public sector contexts, including in urban planning and health and care. Alison published Undoing Optimization: Civic Action in Smart Cities with Yale University Press in 2021. Alison’s participatory research practice of is widely used in public consultation, teaching, and community research worldwide.

From 2019 to 2023, Alison was the Director of the , supported by the Ada Lovelace Institute and the UKRI, which used network methods and convening to introduce new voices and topics into data and AI ethics research across the UK. Other research partners have included Projects by IF and the Open Rights Group, and research funding has come from Horizon Europe, the AHRC, the US Social Science Research Council, the Human Data Interactions Network (EPSRC), and the Open Society Foundations. Alison has advised the and the project.

Alison joined the Department in 2010 as an ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Fellow, and was previously a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, a Canada Graduate Scholar at Concordia University (PhD), and a Rogers Scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University (MA). Prior to academia, Alison worked in the film and TV industry producing new media.

Expertise Details

Technology Design and Policy; Public Sector Technology; Digital Futures; Epistemic Justice; Participatory Research; Creative Methods; Public Participation; Technology in Health and Care

Education

Dr Powell has a Bachelor’s degree in Canadian Literature, extensive training in Science and Technology Studies and critical theory, and many years of field experience working with technical cultures as well as producing creative and collaborative research work. Her PhD (2008) is from Concordia University’s Communication Studies Programme. She integrates multiple perspectives to investigate the social significance of how we build communication technologies, and to develop creative and policy-relevant responses. 

Research

Alison’s work concerns aspects of epistemic justice, ethics, expertise and knowledge politics in technology design. It can be practical, speculative or interventionist, seeking to explore and generate alternatives within the design, regulation and institutional practices associated with technology. Using social scientific, creative and participatory methods, Alison's work foregrounds creativity and participation as essential components of research that can generate alternatives for digital futures. Research outputs beyond academic articles, books and chapters have included , gallery exhibits, speculative fiction and performance, and Alison has appeared on BBC radio, Talk TV and at the Museum of London, among many public engagements.

Current Research

Alison’s current research concerns the relationship between discourse and design of technology, through a project called Deceptive Stories of Technology (and what to do about them). The project asks: What is the significance of stories told about technology? Who tells them, and how do certain interests get designed into things like AI devices, while others aren’t considered? What potential is there for other stories to be told, heard, and acted upon within organizations, especially public sector organizations? Several research strands include:

  • Research on the way that data-driven public consultation can alienate public participation and contribute to political polarization addresses these questions using the case of Low-Traffic Neighbourhood planning.
  • Research on start-up interventions into the UK National Health Service reveals how challenges to epistemic justice are evident in conflicts over scale, time, and the meaning of evidence.
  • The development of sociotechnical principles including reciprocity, temporality and repairability to address epistemic injustices and other inequalities. Opportunities to develop and test these can come from research and practice developed with communities, public sector and public interest organizations.

Other Research

Digital futures

, published by Yale University Press (2021) argues that ‘techno-systemic frames’ shaped by powerful actors shape what kinds of civic actions are possible. The book outlines the history of the ‘smart city’ since 2001, including commercial and radical iterations, and concludes by imagining a transformed vision of ‘smartness’ and citizenship.

– uses the ‘more-than-human’ to consider rights, justice and equality in urban settings, employing an exchange of letters and two pieces of speculative fiction to explore ideas of ‘otherness’. This writing formed part of the MoTH project: .

re-imagines how, where, and why we choose to utilise artificial illumination, using ‘smart’ lighting prototyping as an opportunity to imagine and build more just, sustainable and ethical urban spaces. This project involved collaborating with astronomers, lighting designers, philosophers and architects to re-consider the social construction of darkness in relation to justice and flourishing.

Data and AI Ethics

The : Joining Up Society and Technology for AI, supported by the AHRC and the Ada Lovelace Institute, transformed data and AI ethics research in the UK. JUST AI created alternative ethical spaces, practices and orientations towards the issue of data and AI ethics within a broad community of practice, introducing questions of sustainability of AI infrastructure and rights, access and refusal.

integrates performance, reflection and collaborative knowledge production to investigate data infrastructure and its social consequences. Data walking formed part of the artistic research project  in 2018 and is widely used in teaching, research and public consultation worldwide.

Technology Futures

The Values and Ethics in Innovation for Responsible Technology in Europe (VirtEU), funded by the EU H2020 programme , examined ways to explore ethics in practice among Internet of Things developer communities and responsible innovation, and the .

The Understanding Automated Decisions, funded by the Open Society Foundations considered the possibility and consequences of explaining how algorithms work. Understanding Automated Decisions also culminated in an interactive research exhibit in the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Gallery exploring public reflections on interface design for explanation.

Publications

Teaching and supervision

Postgraduate teaching

Dr Powell is programme director for the MSc Media and Communications (Data and Society), and convenes and teaches on the postgraduate courses  and .

She has also contributed lectures to team-taught postgraduate Media and Communications courses relating to theories and concepts (/) and research methodologies (/).

 

Doctoral supervision

Dr Powell supervises doctoral researchers and welcomes applications from prospective students relating to her areas of research.