Mag.a Dr.in Katja Mayer

Senior Post Doc

(Elise Richter Fellowship FWF)

The Politics of Openness

Tel: +43-1-4277-49612
eMail: katja.mayer@univie.ac.at

Biography

Katja Mayer is a sociologist and works at the interface of science, technology and society. Since 2019, she is working as senior postdoc with the Elise Richter Fellowship (FWF) at the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on the interaction between social science methods and their public spheres.

As part of her postdoc position at the Professorship of Computational Social Science and Big Data, she researched and taught in the field of "Critical Data Studies" at TU Munich.

Her focus is on the cultural, ethical and socio-technical challenges at the interface of computer science, social sciences and society. Data is treated less as a new raw material, but as a highly variable and fragile phenomenon. In the context of data-driven decision-making, data are not considered as "given", but the way we collect, transform, analyze, and trust data is up for discussion.

In addition, Katja also works as Senior Scientist at the Center for Social Innovation in Vienna and is an Associate Researcher at the University of Vienna's platform "Responsible Research and Innovation in Scientific Practice". For many years she has been teaching Sociology, STS and Web Sciences at the University of Vienna, the Danube University Krems, the University of Art and Design Linz and the University of Lucerne. She was a visiting fellow at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (USA). She is a member of the core team of the Open Access Network Austria (OANA) and co-heads the working group "National Strategy for the Transition to Open Science". In the years 2011-2013 she was a research fellow of the President of the European Research Council (ERC).

Publications

A critical reflection on knowledge hierarchies, language and development

Author(s)
M. Langthaler, N. Witjes, G. Slezak
Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the developmental value of knowledge by reflecting on the “knowledge for development” (K4D) paradigm. In particular, it draws attention to the interaction between linguistic and communicative processes and the areas of power, knowledge and education. This is considered fruitful to understanding the complex and subtle mechanisms in the reproduction of the North‐South knowledge and power divide.

Organisation(s)
Department of African Studies
Journal
Multicultural Education and Technology Journal
Volume
6
Pages
235-247
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1108/17504971211279509
Publication date
2012
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
506003 Development policy, 509003 Development cooperation, 509018 Knowledge management, 602001 African studies
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/a-critical-reflection-on-knowledge-hierarchies-language-and-development(8761fae0-c76b-47ba-8bde-341a55435384).html