Wessel Reijers

Wessel Reijers is a Research Associate at the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute in Florence. He is a visiting scholar at the WZB Berlin Social Sciences Centre and the University of Hamburg.

Wessel’s research interests are philosophy and ethics of technology, responsible innovation, and the impact of emerging technologies on citizenship. In his current research, he explores the new mode of governance represented by social scoring systems, with the infamous Chinese Social Credit System as a central example, and is currently co-authoring a popular scientific book on social scoring and how it affects our everyday lives.

Wessel has published widely on topics including blockchain governance, hermeneutic philosophy of technology, and virtue ethics in responsible innovation. He has also recently published a monograph, Narrative and Technology Ethics, with Mark Coeckelbergh.

Wessel’s research and work for Principia Advisory are driven by questions on how to live well with technology, questions that are increasingly pressing in a world saturated with smart devices, artificial intelligence, and systems for automated decision-making. Wessel’s focus is on turning abstract ideas in ethical and political theory into practical applications for engineers and policy makers.