Summary

What does it mean to live in an increasingly digital society – today and in the future? While digital technologies create unprecedented opportunities for communication, education, and civic participation, they also expose and reinforce existing inequalities. Variations in access to digital tools, levels of digital skills, and patterns of technology use – commonly described as the digital divide – shape how individuals and groups benefit from digitalisation.

Description

At the same time, growing connectivity introduces new challenges. Digital stress, information overload, and the social dynamics of online environments, particularly social media, are reshaping how people interact, work, and engage with society. 

The Infra4NextGen “Make It Digital” workshop explores how social science research and cross-national European data can deepen our understanding of digital transformation and its societal consequences. Focusing on key dimensions such as access, skills, wellbeing, and inclusion, the workshop examines how digital inequalities intersect with broader social and economic disparities.  

Participants will work with comparative survey data to: 

• Analyse patterns of digital access and usage across Europe  
• Explore the impacts of digital technologies on wellbeing, participation, and social cohesion  
• Investigate the role of social media in shaping individual and collective experiences  

Combining expert insights with hands-on data analysis, the workshop equips participants with practical skills to use European research infrastructures for evidence-based research and policymaking. 

The event brings together leading experts from academia, European research infrastructures, and the European Commission, offering a unique opportunity to engage with both cutting-edge research and policy perspectives on digital transformation. 

Speakers:

• Dr. Lasse Marz and Professor Anja Abendroth (Bielefeld University)
• Dr. Béatrice d’Hombres (Joint Research Centre, European Commission) 
• Dr. David Consolazio (European Values Study, Università degli Studi di Milano) 
• Dr. Ruxandra Comănaru (European Social Survey, City St George’s, University of London) 
• Dr. Yuliya Kazakova, PhD (Generations & Gender Programme, NIDI, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute) 

Agenda 

Morning Session | 9am-12pm  

• Digitalisation in Europe: Research Insights and and Key Challenges (Lasse Marz and Anja Abendroth)   
• Data sources overview   
• Infra4NextGen data   
• Informing EU Policy: The role of Surveys (Beatrice Dhombres) 
• Q&A   

Afternoon Session | 1-4pm 

• Hands-on work with real data and tools from the morning   
• Develop individual or group research questions   
• Conduct preliminary analyses   
• Reflect on research design, findings, and next steps   
• Collaborative discussion and feedback 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to: 

• Understand digitalisation across access, skills, use, and digital stress  
• Use European survey data (e.g. ESS, EVS, GGS) to analyse digital inequalities  
• Assess drivers of the digital divide (e.g. education, age, socioeconomic status)  
• Evaluate societal impacts of digital technologies and social media  
• Develop policy-relevant insights from data  
• Collaborate on applied research and present findings 

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This event is organised by ADP – Slovenian Social Science Data Archives.

About the speakers

Professor Anja Abendroth has been a Professor for Social Structure Analysis at the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, since December 2023, having previously been a Junior Professor for Technological and Social Change. Since 2011, Professor Abendroth has been employed at Bielefeld University, initially as a research associate in the Collaborative Research Centre ‘From Heterogeneities to Inequalities’ and, since 2013, in the Faculty of Sociology. In 2025, Anja-Kristin Abendroth was appointed an IAB Research Fellow.

Lasse Marz is a Research Associate in the field of social structure and social inequality in the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University. Marz has co-authored two reports for the Infra4NextGen project: The Digital Divide across Europe and Skills, Use and Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence in Europe.

Dr. Béatrice d’Hombres has been the Project leader of the Survey Methods and Analysis Centre (SMAC) at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission since April 2017. During this time, Dr. d’Hombres has also served as the Project Coordinator within the Competence Centre on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards (2021-22) and Coordinator of the Centre for Research on Impact Evaluation, CRIE (2013-16). From 2010-13 Dr. d’Hombres was a Researcher and Policy Analyst as part of the JRC Econometrics and Applied Statistics Unit. Dr. d’Hombres also served as an External Consultant for the World Bank (2010).

Dr. David Consolazio is Assistant Professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Milan. Within the Infra4NextGen project, he works mainly on the Make it Digital and Make it Healthy pillars. David’s research interests lie at the intersection of sociology, epidemiology, and urban studies, focusing on the interplay of individual and contextual-level factors in shaping health and social outcomes, with particular attention on the social determinants of health and residential segregation phenomena.

Dr. Ruxandra Comănaru is a research fellow at the European Social Survey HQ based at City St George’s, University of London. She is primarily working on the Make it Green pillar within the Infra4NextGen project, as well as coordinating the collaboration between the other strands of the project. Ruxandra’s research interests include the design and adaptation of surveys for mixed modes of data collection, with a focus on enhancing the methodological accuracy of self-completion methods. She is also interested in questionnaire design, translation and cultural equivalence of research concepts.

Dr. Yuliya Kazakova is a research fellow for GGP based at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI KNAW). Her work centres on the Make it Equal and Make it Strong pillars in the Infra4NextGen project. This involves close collaboration with leading European academics, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre experts, and the Youth Board to engage young Europeans in data-driven discussion on key issues for future generations. Yuliya’s research interests lie in the field of health economics together with the evaluation of public policies with a particular focus on childhood health, childhood poverty and maternal employment.