Description of the research group

Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs) have become the new buzzword for practitioners and policy makers across the globe shaping agendas of governance and development. According to a recent report, at least 64 countries have DPI-like digital ID systems, 97 countries have DPI-like digital payment systems, and 103 countries have DPI-like data exchange systems (Fetter, Rao, and Eaves 2025). While DPIs have emerged as consolidated policy template for digitalization (Samdub 2025) and as globally circulating sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff and Kim 2015), their meaning, implementation, and implications remain ambiguous and therefore, calling for thorough and critical unpacking.

Drawing on interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS), infrastructure studied and information systems, this research group will organize discussions on material affordances of DPIs and its material politics and how they shape the debates around contemporary geopolitics and governance norms around the globe.

Envisaged Results

The Envisaged Result of this research group are: opinion pieces, conferences and workshops, reading sessions, and expert meetings.

Group Coordinator

Members of the research group:

• Alena Thiel (University of Copenhagen)
• Carolina Maurity Frossard (UvA)
• Divij Joshi (ODI Global)
• Fieke Jansen (UvA)
• Keith Breckenridge (University of the Witwatersrand)
• Niels ten Oever (UvA)
• Sandra Bärnreuther (University of Lucerne)
• Smriti Parsheera

Research Group Type: Network Group

Work plan and time schedule: 2026-2030