Mariska Bosschaert
Profile
Starting from April 2026, I'm Events and Initiatives Coordinator of the 4TU.Ethics. In this role I organize an international conference and investigate the ethics-policy gap, with the aim of enabling research within 4TU.Ethics to have greater impact on policy.
January 2022-August 2025 I was coordinator at the 4TU.Ethics and Technology.
My PhD research was called: Digitalization and Societal Change. A Method for the Philosophy and Ethics of Technology for Understanding Technologies within Structural Contexts. My defense was 14 September 2026.
Digitalization has profoundly transformed society. As a result, it raises important questions about how people relate to the digital world, which assumptions shape our understanding of digital technologies, and it raises ethical issues. One question that has received little attention in debates concerning digitalization is what this kind of technology has actually changed in society. As humans, we often take for granted the technologies that are familiar to us and how they differ from older technologies. However, such assumptions can be misleading and may lead to problematic expectations, such as the questionable belief that digitalization can solve challenges like climate change. Rather than relying on preconceived ideas about the impact of digitalization, it is therefore important to investigate what has really changed. This dissertation addresses that question through an empirically informed approach. It draws on different ways in which philosophers of technology have used empirical research to develop their understandings of technology throughout the 150-year history of the field. The method developed in this dissertation was applied to precision farming in general and Computer Vision in particular to show the importance of not only focus on how technologies are currently adopted by farmers but also how future farmers may adopt them to avoid risks that are currently hard to see.
I have received my master’s degree at VU University in both theology and philosophy. My Philosophy master’s thesis was about how to get new insights for philosophy from a film about artificial intelligence.
My CV can be downloaded here.
Publications
Bosschaert. MT. 2026. Digitalization and Societal Change. A Method for the Ethics and Philosophy of Technology for Understanding Technologies within Structural Contexts. Wageningen: Wageningen University. (Dissertation)
Bosschaert. M.T. 2025. Towards a Method to Reflect on Foundational Structures: The Case of Precision Farming. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 38, article 26.
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-025-09963-3 (part of dissertation)
Bosschaert. M.T., & Blok, V. 2025. Towards an Integrated Framework in the Philosophy of Technology Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology. 30, 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.5840/techne2025930216 (part of dissertation)
Bosschaert. M.T., & Blok, V. 2023. The ‘Empirical’ in the Empirical Turn: A Critical Analysis. Foundations of Science 28, 2: 783-804 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-022-09840-6 (part of dissertation)
Bosschaert. M.T. 2018. Review of Innovation and its enemies: why people resist new technologies, by Calestous Juma. 35, 3: 237-246 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08109028.2018.1522822
Bosschaert, M.T. 2011. “Robots, ook beeld van God?” In Kunst en religie, edited by Wessel Stoker and Oane Reitsma. ‘s Hertogenbosch: Mathesis
Bosschaert. M. 2010. “Een Interreligieuze dialoog over nanotechnologie.” Perspectief. Digitaal Oecumenisch Theologisch tijdschrift 9:14-19
Bosschaert. M. 2010. “Leren van elkaar in de interreligieuze dialoog.” Beweging 74,4:14-17
I was part of the editorial team of: “Kan de schepping beter? Grote vragen over kleine dingen.” Beweging Nanospecial. 2010. 74, 1.