Her project is entitled: Governance by data infrastructure in the post-pandemic democracy (DATAGOV).

Facial recognition cameras, digital identity systems, and health dashboards have become a staple of daily life. By generating data for monitoring or decision-making, these “regulatory data infrastructures” fulfill functions that were once performed exclusively by humans. Regulatory data infrastructures are at the core of a new mode of governance normalised in the post-pandemic society, termed “governance by data infrastructure”. With the pandemic and generative AI accelerating the digital transition of society, regulatory data infrastructures are creeping further into public and private spaces, and that comes with a high societal cost. DATAGOV will explore the dynamics of governance by data infrastructure in the post-pandemic democracies in the European Union and non-Western countries (Brazil, India and South Africa). It focuses on three consumer technologies - biometrics, digital identity and health technology - as living laboratories to explore how regulatory data infrastructures become agents of governance. Contributing to critical data studies, Milan’s project will examine how governance by data infrastructure transforms three key areas of concern to the modern state: citizenship, state sovereignty and inequality. By unmasking the impact of regulatory data infrastructure on governance, DATAGOV will chart the future of democracy amidst pervasive datafication.