Fostering Liberal Intimacies: The Potentials and Perils of Non-Commercial Dating Apps
Digitalization is reshaping intimate relationships and transforming the infrastructures through which people meet and form partnerships. While digital technologies expand opportunities and support previously marginalized groups, they also contribute to a growing detachment of intimacy from embodied social interaction and raise concerns about commercialization and data use. The project asks how liberal societies can ensure that digital environments of intimacy promote autonomy and self-determination in sustainable ways.
The study combines normative political theory with empirical analysis. It examines existing non-commercial dating platforms operated by public or non-profit institutions and evaluates how platform design, algorithmic transparency, equitable access, and data governance align with liberal democratic values at both individual and societal levels.
The project aims to produce academic publications and policy recommendations assessing whether non-commercial platforms can contribute to a liberal and resilient digital intimacy policy.
Main Research Topics
- Digital Intimacy
- Liberalism
- Political Theory
- Platform Regulation
- Autonomy
Curriculum Vitae
- Since 2022: Senior Lecturer, University of Goettingen
- 2012-2021: Postdoc, University of Zurich
- 2007-2011: PhD Candidate, University of St Gallen
- Research Stays at the University of Basel, Oxford University, NYU, Princeton University and Columbia University
Publications and Presentations
- Beckstein, Martin, and David McGrogan, eds. 2026. The Conservative Critique of Liberalism. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- Beckstein, Martin, and Bouke De Vries. 2025. “Dating Apps as Tools for Social Engineering.” Ethics and Information Technology 27 (1): 1–13.
- Beckstein, Martin. 2019. „Political Conservation, or How to Prevent Institutional Decay“. Constellations 26 (4): 623–37.
- Beckstein, Martin. 2015. The Politics of Economic Life. New York: Routledge.