Independent sociology in an asymmetric society

This statement engages with the position paper by focusing on a growing asymmetry in the production of social knowledge between public research institutions and large technology companies. While universities remain committed to open science, transparency, and public accountability, digital platforms increasingly control the infrastructures through which social life is organized, observed, and analyzed. The statement argues that this asymmetry threatens the capacity of independent sociology to produce autonomous and publicly accountable knowledge about digitally mediated societies. It calls for strengthening independent research infrastructures and participatory forms of digital governance to preserve the institutional conditions for rigorous and independent sociological inquiry.