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Ju­lie Uldam

Associate Professor

Subjects
Artificial intelligence Media Social media Sustainability Climate Social responsibility

Primary research areas

Di­git­al Tech­no­lo­gies and So­cial Change
I study how ideas and ex­pect­a­tions about di­git­al tech­no­lo­gies in­ter­sect with broad­er vis­ions of so­cial and en­vir­on­ment­al trans­formation and respons­ibility, es­pe­cially in re­la­tion to the cli­mate.
Di­git­al Plat­forms and Civic En­gage­ment
I ex­am­ine the in­ter­play between di­git­al plat­forms, civic par­ti­cip­a­tion, and polit­ic­al con­test­a­tion, fo­cus­ing on how plat­form lo­gics and al­gorithmic gov­ernance both en­able and con­strain act­iv­ist vis­ib­il­ity and voice.
Di­git­al Com­mu­nic­a­tion and Cor­por­ate Respons­ibility
I ex­am­ine how cor­por­a­tions use di­git­al com­mu­nic­a­tion and cor­por­ate act­iv­ism to con­struct respons­ibility nar­rat­ives, man­age le­git­im­acy, and em­ploy stra­tegic si­lence and se­lect­ive dis­clos­ure prac­tices such as green­hush­ing and green­blush­ing.

My re­search ex­plores the re­la­tion­ship between di­git­al me­dia and civic en­gage­ment from three av­en­ues of en­quiry:

(1) challenges to political contestation, 
(2) corporate practices of managing visibility and legitimacy, and 
(3) how a shift of responsibility to civil society can be made possible in sustainable ways.

My research interests began with social movements' uses of social media in the UK and have centred on how visibility enables and constrains democratic engagement, how power operates through digital communication, and how corporations and social movements negotiate responsibility in different political contexts, especially around environmental and social sustainability. 

Recent research projects

Ima­gin­ing Di­git­al Power and the Power of Di­git­al Ima­gin­a­tion in Busi­ness and So­ci­ety En­coun­ters (DI­GI­BASE)

I cur­rently lead the DI­GI­BASE pro­ject, fun­ded by the In­de­pend­ent Re­search Coun­cil Den­mark (Sapere Aude, 2021-2025).

The pro­ject ex­am­ines how ima­gin­a­tion about di­git­al me­dia shapes re­la­tions between mul­tina­tion­al com­pan­ies and so­cial move­ment or­gan­isa­tions. At a time of cli­mate crisis and in­creas­ing de­mands for cor­por­ate respons­ibility, di­git­al plat­forms have of­ten been seen as demo­crat­ising spaces for ac­count­ab­il­ity. Yet scan­dals around data use and sur­veil­lance have fuelled mis­trust, while fears of cri­ti­cism and re­tali­ation have con­trib­uted to po­lar­isa­tion. The pro­ject ex­plores how ima­gin­ar­ies shape uses of di­git­al me­dia in de­fin­ing and con­test­ing cor­por­ate respons­ibility.

Outside activities

Eth­ics ad­visor, , 2025 - 2027

Eth­ics ad­visor for the Ho­ri­zon pro­ject IN­TER­FACED
Go to project website

Pan­el mem­ber, Swedish re­search coun­cil (VR) , 2020 - 2025

Pan­el mem­ber for pan­els on ‘civil so­ci­ety’ and ‘di­git­al­isa­tion’