Evaluating the societal outcomes of digital technologies: building blocks and reflexive questions

The ESRC Digital Good Network (2022-2027) asks what a good digital society looks like and how we get there. This discussion paper presents the emerging themes from our research so far, which we describe as the ‘building blocks’ for a good digital society. We also ask how we can evaluate whether digital technologies have good societal outcomes. The building blocks inform a set of reflexive questions for evaluating whether digital technologies have good societal outcomes. We present these questions below as a possible means of evaluating the societal outcomes of digital technologies.

The questions are designed for policymakers, technology developers and designers, civil society and community groups, or anyone interested in evaluating whether and how a digital technology, feature, or system has good societal outcomes. The process of answering them should include the voices of people who are affected by technologies but are often not heard (we call these minoritised voices). It should help identify and inform interventions.

The questions aim to initiate a conversation about whether and how we can evaluate ‘the digital good’ - a phrase we use to talk about the characteristics of a good digital society. As such, they are not set in stone. We want interested stakeholders to think with us about the best reflexive questions for evaluating the digital good, and to work with us over the next two years to test out, challenge, iterate and revise them. We started this with discussions with stakeholders across academia, civil society, policy and industry at the 2025 Digital Good Network summit. This document invites you to join us in that process.