Hello and welcome! I’m a social scientist interested in democratic experiments with data and how data infrastructures can be designed to govern public problems.

My research draws from pragmatism, science and technology studies, and data studies to investigate how data is turned into something of value for different actors. My work has studied how civil society can assemble data to complement, augment, and challenge state-collected data, how citizen-generated data may or may not inform sustainable development, and the politics of impact assessments and other evaluation frameworks for data-intense systems. Currently, I’m involved in two larger projects on digital health. One is a qualitative study of digital health apps and how they reconfigure medical expertise, bodily knowledge, and the doctor-patient relationship. Another one is my dissertation on health data governance asking how platforms for health data sharing (comparing a data trust, a data cooperative, and a data donation initiative) intend to create social value while navigating various epistemic, ethical, and economic tensions.

I’m also an independent research consultant and am currently working as an IRM researcher for the Open Government Partnership. I’m also a research fellow at Waag Society in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as well as a member of the Public Data Lab. In the past, I led research and policy work at the Open Knowledge Foundation, and held research positions at the University of Amsterdam and the Fraunhofer Society. I have collaborated with various international NGOs, donors, public policy bodies, and research institutions, including the United Nations, the Web Foundation, CIVICUS Alliance, Mozilla Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation.

On this website you can find updates on my writings, publications, projects, and public talks. Get in touch via at danny.laemmerhirt [ at ] gmail.com, if you would like to collaborate, explore new ideas, or just have a chat over coffee.