Participation and Diversity in Digital Societies

The Focus Group “Participation and Diversity in Digital Societies” is led by Rudolf Mößbauer Assistant Professor, Prof. Dr. Sandra Cortesi, and her team at the Technical University of Munich. The Focus Group investigates how young people and other underrepresented communities engage with digital technologies, including social media and generative AI, and how evidence can inform policy, design, and governance. It draws on participatory, interdisciplinary, and globally comparative approaches to understand digital well-being, skills, agency, and the future of work in technologically mediated societies.

A central aim is to integrate diverse lived experiences into the development of digital technologies and to strengthen evidence-based, child-centred and people-centred approaches in research, industry, and policymaking. Selected projects focus on digital child safety and well-being, AI ethics literacy, participatory research with youth across cultures, and creative, arts-based methods for exploring human–technology interactions. The Focus Group also builds the Youth and Media Lab and the Creativity Lab in partnership with the TUM Think Tank.