On this episode we speak with Giuliano Sansone who holds a PhD in Management from Politecnico di Torino. He has been visiting Ph.D. Student at the MIT Sloan School of Management under the supervision of Fiona Murray in 2018.  Broadly, Guiliano's work focuses on working on Entrepreneurship in three distinct areas:

Currently, Guiliano is a post-doc researcher at Prague University of Economics and Business in the Department of Entrepreneurship under the supervision of Martin Lukeš. Giuliano’s research is dedicated to entrepreneurial creation and development and social entrepreneurship. His research was published in international journals such as Technological Forecasting and Social Change and International Entrepreneurship. His research was presented at more than 10 international conferences such as R&D, IPDMC and CINet. Giuliano also worked for the European+ project named Entrepreneurship Education Ecosystems in Engineering and Technology (E4T) and he is working for an international research team named Social Innovation Monitor (SIM).

Melissa Vasi is a doctoral candidate in Business Administration at Uninettuno University under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Vincent English.  

Melissa received her B.Sc. in Computer Science in 2015 from University of Milano-Bicocca with a thesis on IT architectures that enable marketing communications and CRM development. She obtained her MBA in Business Administration and Digital Technologies (summa cum laude) in 2020 from Uninettuno University with a thesis on digital innovations and business models applied to insurance processes. Please follow Melissa’s interesting work on Twitter: @melissavasi or visit her website Website: www.melissavasi.com

On this episode we explore how recently, governments have shown significant interest in disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). For example, recently launched national strategic AI plans. However, AI adoption in the public sector is an emerging trend, hence, there is enormous ambiguity about the optimal deployment.

Our guest is Samar Fatima is a Ph.D. scholar in the Queensland University of Technology Business School. Her research interest focuses on exploring the role of artificial intelligence in the public sector. Through her research, she aspires to explain the role of technology in societal development initiatives. The first study identifies what approach each country is adopting towards AI through national strategic plans. The second study explores why the countries approached AI in a certain way. The third study focuses on how public agencies develop the readiness to design and deliver AI-enabled public services. The third study presents renovation in business models of public agencies for such disruptive transformation.

By using a combination of data sources (primary and secondary) and employing a set of methodologies such as content analysis, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and design science research methodology, the dissertation covers a variety of theoretical and empirical avenues. The dissertation answers the what, why and how affairs of AI in countries. Besides extending knowledge on strategic planning of governments, the dissertation sheds light on various societal (e.g. ethics) and practical (policy implication) issues related to AI adoption and anticipates future of AI in countries. Follow Samar’s interesting work @ Twitter: https://twitter.com/samarfhatimaand LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samar-fatima

On this episode we speak with Sudhir Selvaraj of King’s College London about his research study looking at religious freedoms for minorities in India. Article 25 of the Indian Constitution provides for the 'Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion'. However, in the recent past there has been an increase of violence against religious minorities.

Sudhir’s study adopts Norwegian political scientist Johan Galtung's framework which advocates for a broad conception of violence which includes direct, structural and cultural factors. Galtung also suggests a causal flow of violence from its cultural forms to its structural forms and finally to its direct forms. Sudhir’s study argues that both structural and physical violence are rooted in and justified using the Hindutva ideology which portrays Christians as "foreigners" intent on destroying the integrity of the Hindu nation through religious conversions.

Mainly, conversions are portrayed as a threat to the "Hindu State" in two ways. The first is its role in targeting "vulnerable" Hindu populations, particularly Dalits and Tribals. Secondly, conversions are presented as a tool of "foreigners" to influence India's politics. This broader conception of violence facilitates a challenge to existing notions that violence against Christians in the country began its proliferation in the late 1990s. Follow Sudhir’s work on Twitter @SudhirSelvaraj and also @ https://www.sudhirselvaraj.com/. Programming note: The Episode was recorded under available internet connection

On this episode we explore how emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence offer great opportunities, but also pose existential threats to humanity and the natural world.

Our guest is Rebecca Johnson a PhD researcher from the University of Sydney, Faculty of Sciences. Rebecca’s work specifically looks at the ethics of artificial neural networks; the deep learning side of AI with a view to contribute to experts making better choices when deploying these new technologies into our world.

Tools such as AI have no capacity for a sense of morality and values, yet we increasingly permit artificial agents to make choices and decisions for us. From autonomous vehicles to recidivism risk algorithms, distribution of health care services to algorithmically adjusted school grades, hiring of new employees to management of non-renewable sources; we have given huge amounts of agency to our artificial agents.

Rebecca has long been fascinated by the interplay between humans and technology - sociotechnical systems. Sociotechnical systems (STS) approaches help us to better understand relationships between technologies, social structures, and the emergent phenomena that arise from those relationships.

Follow Rebecca’s fascinating work at @https://sts4ir.com/, or Twitter: @VoxBec

In this episode we speak with Dr Amanda Källstig who did her PhD in Politics at the University of Manchester, whose research explored what stand-up comedy in Zimbabwe can tell us about resistance and subjectivity. Amanda's research interests include comedy, postcolonial international relations theory, resistance, and subjectivity particularly in the context of the African continent.

Amanda’s research deals with what stand-up comedy in Zimbabwe can tell us about resistance and subjectivity. Through a fieldwork-based approach she looks at how stand-up comedy intervenes politically exploring how the genre interrupts the way both state and society constructs 'Zimbabwean-ness'. Follow Amanda’s work on twitter @DrKällstig. Amanda joined the Stockholm University in August 2021 as a lecturer in International Relations.