René Mahieu

René Mahieu is an economist at the Institute of Human Obsolescence and PhD candidate in the economics and governance of online privacy at Delft University of Technology. He investigates the changing economic role of humans in the production process and its social and political consequences, and researches the future of privacy in a world where personal data is becoming the dominant economical asset.

As an activist, he is treasurer of Noodzaak, an NGO that provides housing for undocumented migrants through a new cooperative model, by sharing the use of otherwise vacant space, by migrants and active citizens. He writes on socio-political issues and participates in movements such as Artists in Occupy Amsterdam. He has been the CEO of a family business and studied Economics at Netspar at Tilburg University and Philosophy of Economics at Erasmus University, The Netherlands, and has been a visiting scholar at London School of Economics Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS)