Research Projects

My current research goal is to explore the relationship between data science and governance associated with public health, environment, policing, social welfare, and emerging technologies.  My research topics are as follows: 

1. Theoretical approach

1. • 2020. Kim, Eun-sung. "Deep learning and principal-agent problems of algorithmic governance: the new materialism perspective," Technology in Society, 63, 101378. (Link)

   • Sensory politics in an era of artificial intelligence.

2. Digital epidemiology in South Korea

• 2024. Kim, Eun-sung, "The birth of digital epidemiology in South Korea," East Asian Science, Technology, and Society: an International Journal. 18(1): 22-46. (Link)

• 2023. Kim, Eun-sung and Ji-bum Chung. "Assembling good citizenship under Korean COVID-19 surveillance," Critical Policy Studies. 17(1): 123-141. (Link)

• 2021. Kim, Eun-sung and Ji-bum Chung. "Korean mothers’ morality in the wake of COVID-19 contact tracing surveillance," Social Science and Medicine. 270, 113673. (Link)

3. Data-driven environmental governance in South Korea.  This research looks into the politics of big data and algorithms in Korean environmental governance associated with environmental monitoring, environmental big data platforms, and environmental decision-making. 

• Can data science  achieve the ideal of evidence-based decision-making in environmental regulation?  

• Multi-faceted platform politics in the design of the Korean digital environmental impact assessment.  

• Data science and the politics of environmental expertise in the Korean digital environmental impact assessment system.  

• The inscrutability of deep learning, translation, and knowledge emergence in environmental studies.

• The development of data science and the future of data-driven environmental governance.

4. SMART policing in South Korea.  This research examines the social, political, institutional context of SMART policing in the Korean criminal justice system. It includes the Pre-CAS, Geopros, intelligence-based CCTV, the Smart Security Big Data Platform, etc.

2. • The birth of SMART policing in South Korea. 

   • Practices of Korean SMART policing: Organizational sociological analysis.

   • Social acceptance of SMART policing in South Korea.

6. Data-driven R&Ds and markets.   This research looks into the social and political contexts of data-driven R&Ds and bioeconomy.

2. • 2023, Kim, Eun-sung, Yoehan Oh, Gi Woong Yun, "Sociotechnical challenges to the technological accuracy of computer vision: The new materialism perspective," Technology in  Society. 75. 102388. (Link)

   • The rise  of  data-driven bioeconomy in South Korea

7. Data science and social welfare in South Korea. This research examines various social contexts related to the use of data science for social welfare system. 

•  A analysis of the Korean social security information system for the alleviation of welfare blind spots