The Internet has transformed political behaviour, from voting and campaigning for policy change, to protest and even revolution. This poses a challenge to states, as political movements become more turbulent, unpredictable, and societies harder to govern.
To understand this radically transformed political world, we are re-examining the models and conceptual frameworks of political science and theory, and developing social data science methodologies to understand political behaviour.
As governments digitalize, their bureaucratic structures are increasingly encountering AI. This project explores what happens next by asking how the structures of public sector bureaucracies transform when exposed to new AI-based systems.
This project analyses Sweden's depiction online and in news media by foreign radical groups and how these depictions, in turn gains visibility in Swedish media
This project seeks to review the Indian government’s policies relating to AI and Work, to improve understanding of how they are/can be (re)configured to account for and address the informality that characterises Indian urban labour markets.
26 June 2023
Autocratic states were less effective at responding to the pandemic, despite enforcing stringent policy measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, according to a new study from academics at the University of Oxford.
7 June 2023
The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) has appointed Chris Russell as Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor, AI, Government and Policy.
4 April 2023
Oxford Internet Institute researcher Huw Roberts and Professor Luciano Floridi explain the challenges for AI regulation in the UK and outline the case for stronger regulatory protections for UK citizens.
Politico, 19 September 2023
For Vili Lehdonvirta, a Finnish researcher based at Oxford, the AI revolution has a fundamentally physical basis, one that could be as relevant to global power as the geography of proven oil reserves and pipelines has been for decades.
BBC News, 12 September 2023
In this article, Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, OII shares his insights on the wave of US lawsuits trying to curb the power of tech firms.
The Times, 06 September 2023
Some experts say working too closely with leading artificial intelligence companies could result in a ‘rubber stamping’ exercise. OII researcher Huw Roberts shares his perspective on the upcoming AI safety conference and Online Safety Bill.
Professor of Society and the Internet
Helen Margetts is Professor of Society and the Internet, a political scientist specialising in digital government and politics. She was Director of the OII from 2011-18. She is a Professorial Fellow of Mansfield College.
The OII is home to some of the top academics studying digital politics and government, including Professor Helen Margetts. She is a political scientist specialising in the relationship between digital technology and government, politics and public policy. She is an advocate for the potential of multi-disciplinarity and computational social science for our understanding of political behaviour and development of public policy in a digital world.
She has published over a hundred books, articles and policy reports in this area, including Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action (with Peter John, Scott Hale and Taha Yasseri, 2015); Paradoxes of Modernization (with Perri 6 and Christopher Hood, 2010); Digital Era Governance (with Patrick Dunleavy, 2006, 2008); and The Tools of Government in the Digital Age (with Christopher Hood, 2007).
Professor Margetts joined the OII in 2004 from University College London where she was a Professor in Political Science and Director of the School of Public Policy. She began her career as a computer programmer and systems analyst with Rank Xerox after receiving her BSc in mathematics from the University of Bristol. She returned to study at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1989, completing an MSc in Politics and Public Policy in 1990 and a PhD in Government in 1996. She worked as a researcher at LSE from 1991 to 1994 and a lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London from 1994 to 1999.
Research Associate
In 2022 Jonathan Bright became the Head of AI for Public Services at the Turing Institute, having previously been a faculty member of the OII. A political scientist, he specialises in computational and ‘big data’ approaches to the social sciences.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Dr Scott A. Hale is an Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, and Turing Fellow. He develops and applies computer science techniques to the social sciences focusing on increasing equitable access to quality information.
Professor of Internet Studies
Philip N. Howard is a professor of sociology, information, and international affairs. He is Director of the Programme on Democracy and Technology, and is a Professorial Fellow of Balliol College.
