Astrid Mager, Dr.

Astrid Mager is a senior post-doc at the Institute of Technology Assessment, Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). Since April 2018 she is a research fellow at HIIG in the research program Internet Policy and Governance.

Astrid´s reserach is concerned with the Internet and society – including search engine politics, algorithms and aspects of privacy, internet governance, alternative technology, critical theory, as well as digital methods against the background of science and technology studies and technology assessment.

Astrid studied sociology and communication studies at the University of Vienna. From 2004 to 2009 she worked and lectured at the Department of Social Studies of Science and Technology (University of Vienna). There she graduated with a PhD on the Internet as a health information source. From 2010 to 2012 she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at HUMlab, Umeå University, in Sweden, where she analyzed search engines and algorithmic ideologies. Since 2012 she works as a post-doc at the Institute of Technology Assessment (ÖAW), leading the project „Glocal Search. Search technology at the intersection of global capitalism and local socio-political cultures” at first (funded by the OeNB). Since November 2016 she is leader of the habilitation project “Algorithmic Imaginaries. Visions and values in the shaping of search engines“ (funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project number V511-G29). Additionally, she teaches at the Department of Social Studies of Science and Technology and is co-editor of the peer-reviewed, open-access journal „Momentum Quarterly – journal for social progress“. Since May 2018 Astrid is member of the Young Academy of the ÖAW, consisting of excellent young researchers of all disciplines.