[Translation : EPALE France]

EPALE France: What have been the highlights of your career?

Yaël Benayoun: I didn’t come from a digital background, but from research in political philosophy. This may come as a surprise. And yet it has shaped my approach to digital issues. Political philosophy is a branch of philosophy that studies society, and more specifically the foundations of political power, looking at such questions as: where does the legitimacy to govern come from, what is a just political system? 

Since 2016-2017, I have been interested in “algorithmic governmentality”. This is a rather barbaric term, but one that allows us to examine the way in which the development of computer language and algorithmic calculation is changing power structures and modes of government. Since the 18th century, the State has had a monopoly on the production and knowledge of population data through public statistics. With the advent of microcomputing and then Big Data, new players - both private and public - are competing with the State in the production and processing of this data. What does this mean? How does this redefine political power? 

I have pursued these questions in the context of an association. The collective “Le Mouton Numérique” came about in February 2017, after I met Irénée Régnauld, the author of the blog Mais où va le web?

EPALE France: What is Le Mouton Numérique?

Yaël Benayoun: At Le Mouton Numérique, we see digital technology as a “total social fact”, in the sense used by the anthropologist Marcel Mauss to characterise social facts that influence all of society’s institutions: family, school, the State, etc. In other words, no area of society is immune, and the phenomena of rationalisation and optimisation encapsulated in digital devices compete with and are articulated in other normative registers. 

Over time, our approach has become more political. For the first three years, the association’s message was fairly general in order to raise awareness of the political aspect of digital technology: technologies are not neutral; they have social, political and environmental effects that are not inevitable; to master them, we need to understand the interplay of stakeholders and take action. We are now working on targeted themes such as surveillance, technical democracy (i.e. the way in which we decide collectively whether or not to make technical choices), the environment, technical fantasies and the issue of intersectionality (i.e. the way in which social inequalities are intertwined). For example, social networks use extractivist business models based on the exploitation of personal data (the submerged side) and an abundant workforce (particularly for content moderation - the visible side), but they have also enabled many minority groups to organise themselves and put issues on the political agenda, such as #BlackLivesMatter or #Meetoo. If these practices and dynamics are not taken into account, there is a risk of producing a critique that is out of touch with reality, to the detriment of these struggles for social justice.

How is the association organised?

Yaël Benayoun: Le Mouton Numérique has around sixty volunteers, mainly in the Paris region but not exclusively. Our primary method of action is to organise debates. We recently held a series of five events on how public services are going paperless. This enabled us to explore the impact of digitisation on the access to rights, the consequences for social workers and administrative staff, the role of consultancy firms, etc. We also wanted to focus on the increasing use of algorithms in checks on CAF beneficiaries. Our goal was to remind people that behind what may appear to be simply technical issues lie political choices and orientations. For example, in Seine-Saint-Denis, appointments to renew residence permits are now made electronically. People have to make an appointment using an online platform. But there are only 60 appointments available each week, which is far too few given the level of demand (there are more than 150,000 undocumented migrants in the département): the result is that people are forced to go through the administrative courts - which are already clogged - to get an appointment. This is a way of instrumentalising the introduction of these technologies to restrict or even obstruct certain rights.

This year, the association is welcoming a new team, and I am delighted! Christelle Gilabert, who is also an EPALE expert on the environment, is taking over as co-president of the association.

What other activities are you involved in?

Yaël Benayoun: I have been a freelance consultant in social science and a researcher since 2020; I set up my own business just before Covid. In my work, I use research tools to ensure that social realities are better taken into account. My three favourite areas are: work, digital technology and associations. 

In particular, I work on changes in professional practices and standards in a context of crisis (ecological, technological and social). On digital issues, as well as Le Mouton Numérique, I am the “Digital Commons” contact, a scheme run by the Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires (ANCT), and a member of the editorial committee of the Revue des NEC Locaux since 2021.

On the subject of associations, I co-host the Questions d'Asso podcast with Karl Pineau, which documents the issues facing the voluntary sector (funding, governance, suffering in the workplace, activist strategies, etc.) giving a voice to the people who are the first to be affected. I joined the Haut Conseil à la Vie Associative (HCVA) as a volunteer in 2023.

I am also working with the Nantes Atlantique design school on an ethnographic study of rural mobility as part of the eXtrême Défi launched by Ademe.

What projects do you plan to develop with EPALE?

Yaël Benayoun: For this assignment, I have teamed up with Anne-Charlotte Oriol. She is a member of Le Mouton Numérique and has worked for around ten years in the digital sector in Île-de-France and particularly in Seine-Saint-Denis, mainly in training for digital professions and digital inclusion. She is also writing a dissertation in sociology on the social issues that arise in fab labs. Together, we are taking part in EPALE’s monitoring work on digital inclusion. Our aim is to document the practices and dynamics that exist in local areas to meet the connectivity requirements of digital transformation policies and the inequalities they create. This is not just a French issue; this type of policy is found throughout Europe: the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium... We will try to remain attentive to what is being done and said elsewhere, particularly in civil society. We also want to reflect on the political, technical and social conditions that will enable the emergence of digital systems that serve the general interest, through questions such as: is responsible AI possible? Under what conditions does a “digital commons” exist?