Rianne Riemens is a postdoctoral researcher studying Big Tech and processes of platformization in relation to the climate crisis. She is part of the focus area Governing the Digital Society and also one of the core members of the special interest group Greening the Digital Society. The postdoc project is supported by the Spinoza-funded project led by Prof. dr. Jos茅 van Dijck. Her current research focuses on 1) the relation between Big Tech, AI and energy and 2) the narratives around the sustainability of technology in EU debates about the green and digital 鈥渢win鈥� transition.
Before starting her postdoc, Rianne was a PhD researcher at Radboud University, within an ERC project on Platform Discourses. In her PhD project titled Platform Earth: Ecomodernism in Tech-on-Climate Discourse, she analyzes how the cultural network of Silicon Valley has (re)positioned itself in relation to the climate crisis. The research maps how US tech actors - companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and prominent tech figures such as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk - legitimize the expansion of their businesses through a range of promotional materials and activities: their 鈥渢ech-on-climate discourse鈥�. Through a discursive and historical analysis, the project examines the narratives and aesthetics of Big Tech鈥檚 climate discourse, exit projects such as seasteading and spacefaring, as well as forms of tech-for-good philanthropy. In sum, the research critiques the myth of 鈥淧latform Earth鈥� and its underlying ecomodernist ideology: the fantasy that Silicon Valley鈥檚 platform ecosystem is good for the planet and will prove essential for 鈥渟olving鈥� the climate crisis.
Rianne has a background in media and culture studies. After her graduation, she worked as a freelancer for cultural organizations SETUP and Waag Futurelab, and as a junior researcher at Utrecht University (Geosciences) in the project Algoritmisch Atelier, studying the safeguarding of public values on mobility platforms.