Q. (Qian) Huang, Dr

Ongoing project

Negotiating Digital Visibility: Public Intellectuals’ Cautious Labor

• Funding: NWO Talent Programme - Vini Grants
• Duration: 01. January 2026 - 31.12.2029

Project description: Public intellectuals are individuals who use intellectual resources to address public concerns through accessible communication. Across different sectors, they provide informed perspectives and critical thinking, which are instrumental for cultural expression and democratic debate. Cultivating digital visibility is an integral part of their work and has been intensified by digital platforms. However, being visible also exposes them to risks, such as online shaming and harassment.

This digital visibility dilemma—the necessity for and risks of digital visibility—requires intense labor to navigate and negotiate, yet remains understudied. The dilemma and negotiation practices vary across social contexts yet display universal patterns. Thus, cross-sector and cross-country comparative research is needed to understand the phenomenon comprehensively.

This project explores the research question: How do public intellectuals negotiate their digital visibility in China and the Netherlands?

To answer this, I design three work packages with innovative ethnographic methods. In WP1, I conduct 30 in-depth interviews and a collaborative auto-ethnography to understand how academics negotiate digital visibility while balancing their institutional obligations. In WP2, I invite 20 journalists to do multimodal journaling to illustrate their concerns, challenges, and tactics in managing digital visibility. In WP3, I conduct ethnographies in two comedy clubs to understand how stand-up comedians perform and manage their social media accounts to negotiate digital visibility.

Built upon these empirical findings, I present a new concept to highlight individual agency: cautious labor—the physical, cognitive, and emotional labor to achieve a ‘safe’ digital visibility for career development and self-realization.

Throughout this project, I engage stakeholders to co-construct mitigation strategies toward safer digital visibility for public intellectuals. This includes producing short videos to raise public awareness and empathy, providing practical toolkits for individuals, and organizing workshops for relevant institutions/networks. In the long term, this project will contribute to freedom of expression in society.