On Our Terms

Autonomy in the Digital Age

Surrounded by dependencies

A small group of tech executives has never held more influence over our economies, our politics, and our daily lives. Behind every free app and seamless platform lies an economic model built on capturing your attention and monetizing your behavior. And as the lines between Big Tech and political power blur, the stakes are getting harder to ignore.

This is true in society at large, but it's also true in education. The platforms and tools we use to teach and learn are not neutral. They shape what happens in the classroom, what students engage with, and what gets left out. They tie us, often invisibly, to data economies, environmental costs, and geopolitical dependencies we rarely get to choose.

None of these are inevitable, and we can opt for change on our terms.

What to expect

Through short presentations and an open panel discussion, we'll dig into:

• What digital autonomy means and why it’s becoming urgent
• How money and power flow through the platform economy, and what that means forpeople affected by these platforms
• How tech companies shape not just technologies, but politics, culture, and education
• What it would mean to build digital systems around public values instead of private profit

Speakers

George van Hal is a science editor at de Volkskrant. He writes about space exploration, astronomy, and physics. In June, he and his colleague Laurens Verhagen will publish the book The Tech Bros, about how the futuristic fantasies of a handful of billionaires are already turning the world into a nightmare.

Ivonne Jansen-Dings lives in The Hague and is a strategic advisor for the Province of Zuid-Holland, where she designs regional policy for digital public infrastructure and other shared digital spaces. She is also co-founder of Code for NL, Polis NL, and Voxit EU. Jansen-Dings previously served as Head of Program at Waag Futurelab, Amsterdam’s digital research lab.

Lilian de Jong works as a futures researcher at the Foundation for Future Studies of Technology (STT), where she is exploring strategic autonomy in relation to AI and data infrastructure within public administration. She develops scenarios to make visible the range of possible futures and what these require from organizations.

Dr. Martijn van der Linden is Professor of Practice in New Finance at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. His work examines the future of money, new financial systems, and their societal implications.

Hans Nederlof is a member of the Executive Board of The Hague University of Applied Sciences, with responsibility for business operations. He oversees areas including IT, finance, and information security, and plays an important role in the digital transformation of higher education. In addition, he is active in national collaborations, representing the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (Vereniging Hogescholen) in, among others, the OCW Information Chamber and committees on funding and digitalisation, and he is involved with Studielink and SURF, where he focuses on issues related to digital infrastructure and autonomy.

About the series

Autonomy in the Digital Age is a three-part event series organized by The Hague University of Applied Sciences, exploring digital autonomy from three angles: the problem and its urgency (session 1), the concrete alternatives that already exist (session 2), and the laws and politics shaping what's possible (session 3). Each event stands alone, but together they build toward a fuller picture.

Registration

Free entry for students, staff, and anyone interested, as always. Please register in advance:

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Picture:
© Rose Willis & Kathryn Conrad / betterimagesofai.org