Iñaki's Journey: The Role of Dialogue in Public Engagement with Emerging Technologies
“The promises of new democratic practices depend quite a lot on the technological infrastructures and the technical processes through which they are materialised”
Understanding the intersection of technology and citizen participation is more than an academic pursuit for Iñaki Goñi, it’s a lived experience. His research explores both how technologies shape public participation and how the public engages in decision-making about technology itself. His journey into this field was shaped by hands-on involvement in large-scale participatory processes in Chile, including both constitutional reforms between 2020 and 2022.
“I saw firsthand how citizen dialogue and input could be reduced to mere numbers. In one instance, our team was handed a CSV file containing responses from thousands of Chileans who had taken part in self-organised dialogues. Our job was to transform that raw data into a simple table of word frequencies and that sort of analysis; an output that had little political impact.”
This experience led Iñaki to explore opportunities for further study and to critically examine the role of technology in democratic participation, questioning how digital infrastructures either enable or constrain meaningful engagement.
Since beginning his PhD studies at Edinburgh, Iñaki helped organise the Collective Intelligence Group advising the Scottish Government on participation technologies and supporting the embedding of citizen deliberation in law-making alongside the Scottish Parliament.
Last year, building on this experience, Iñaki was elected as a Council Member of the European Association of Science and Technology Studies (EASST). He also started supporting the upcoming Global Citizen Assembly. His work with the Assembly, a global initiative bringing together diverse organisations to radically strengthen global governance, is aiming to create ethical and politically aware data infrastructures to analyse and communicate outputs.
In 2025, he looks forward to further opportunities to put his research into action.
“Democracy is in a real crisis, and I can’t feel comfortable not aligning my work to what I see as the most pressing societal needs. This year, we’re launching our new Civic Tech for the Global Citizen Assembly, and of course, I’ll also be delivering the first draft of my PhD..”
The Centre for Technomoral Futures has been instrumental in Iñaki’s journey. A pivotal moment in his academic development was collaborating with CTMF’s Dr John Zerilli on a BRAID report examining automation bias in public services. “Working with John was fundamental to expanding my academic collaborations. His expertise complemented mine, particularly in the legal and administrative dimensions of democracy.”
The Centre’s financial support also made it possible for Iñaki to attend the Summer School of Deliberative Democracy, where he built critical connections with scholars and practitioners in the field. “The opportunity to engage with experts in deliberative democracy and civic tech has been invaluable. The Centre has played a crucial role in helping me build these relationships.”
As Iñaki continues to explore the relationship between technology and democratic participation, his work is more relevant than ever. His research not only sheds light on the complexities of civic engagement in the digital age but also strives to create meaningful change in real-world settings.
We are proud to support Iñaki’s work and look forward to seeing how his insights help shape the future of democratic participation.