Joanna Bronowicka

Sociologist, researcher, activist and long-time migrant. She came to Berlin 12 years ago and has made her home in the Rote Insel, where she lives with her family. She loves her Kiez for its quiet streets and everyday life — and for the sense that the city's history is always just around the corner. She spent her first four years in Berlin in Neukölln and still returns regularly to meet people who arrived after her and listen to how they are changing the city.

Joanna currently works at the European University Viadrina, where she researches work, migration and collective organising. Previously, she headed the Center for Internet and Human Rights and worked on digital policy at Poland's Ministry of Digital Affairs. She is also part of Reversing.Works, a collective investigating how digital platforms and algorithmic management shape people's working lives.

Joanna has spent much of her life campaigning for the rights of people whose voices are often overlooked. In the US, she campaigned for the DREAM Act and the rights of undocumented students, and volunteered in homeless shelters in New Mexico and Boston. In France, she supported campaigns for the rights of West African sans-papiers. In Poland, she was involved in campaigns for the regularisation of undocumented migrants. In Berlin, she participated in the Black Protest and has been a strong voice for reproductive rights.

Her work on digital rights after the Snowden revelations eventually brought her to the fight for workers' rights. She was among the early campaigners raising concerns about opaque algorithms in social media, banking and the workplace, and later worked closely with food delivery workers and their organisations. Through research, publications and public advocacy, she has supported campaigns for better working conditions and argued for labour law reforms that make it easier for workers in precarious jobs to organise collectively.

Joanna is active in Razem Berlin, the German branch of the Polish left-wing party, and has been involved in building political networks among Polish and other migrant communities. Born in Wrocław in 1986, she studied International Relations and Philosophy in Paris, Public Policy and Administration in Warsaw, and Social Sciences at Harvard University.