Democracy & Digital Citizenship Conference Series
Digital Democracy Centre, University of Southern Denmark, Odense
September 3rd - September 4th 2024
Key questions of democracy and citizenship are becoming increasingly inseparable from discussions on the development of digital technologies. Gaining traction in academic disciplines across the humanities, social and technical sciences, the question of how political processes are influenced by technological innovation—and what makes such influences productive or disruptive—has simultaneously become a leading emphasis for public interest groups, civil society organizations, and public authorities.
Against this backdrop Digital Democracy Centre (DDC) at the University of Southern Denmark, The Centre for Digital Citizenship (CDC) at Roskilde University, Shaping Digital Citizenship (SHAPE) at Aarhus University and Copenhagen Centre for Social Data Science (SODAS) at the University of Copenhagen are pleased to collectively announce the 2nd biennial international conference on Democracy & Digital Citizenship.
The four Centres view the pressing societal challenges beset by digital media technologies, big data, and artificial intelligence as key research priorities, and we offer this initiative as an interdisciplinary space for developing and addressing these priorities. Scholars from different academic traditions and disciplines —who all too rarely meet, despite sharing many research interests—convene in Denmark every other year, in order to exchange knowledge and insights into the complex and evolving relationships between technological developments, institutional and everyday political practices, and democratic systems of governance.
Steering Committee: Claes de Vreese, University of Southern Denmark/University of Amsterdam, Lena Frischlich, University of Southern Denmark, Sine Nørholm Just, Roskilde University, Chris Peters, Roskilde University, Rebecca Adler-Nissen, University of Copenhagen, Frederik Hjorth, University of Copenhagen, Peter Danholt, Aarhus University.
Call for Papers, 2nd Conference on Democracy & Digital Citizenship
September 3rd - September 4th 2024, Digital Democracy Centre, University of Southern Denmark, Odense
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon, Professor of Communication and Director of the Center for Information Networks, Democracy, and Sociology at the Annenberg School for Communication, and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jakob Ohme, Research Group Lead of 'Digital News Dynamics' at the Weizenbaum Institute, and Fellow at the 'Digital Communication Methods Lab' at the University of Amsterdam.
Format: Two-day conference, including a conference dinner (covered by the conference fee) at the end of the first day. The conference includes a pre-conference PhD workshop, which will take place on the morning of the first day.
Description: It’s easy to make a rhetorical case for the importance of considering technological developments alongside political shifts in digital democracies. Technologies shape how citizens engage with and know many key democratic actors (governments, parties, media, the public sector, judiciary, etc.) and, conversely, how these actors know and engage with citizens. Moreover, digital technologies shape much of the societal information flow we deem a necessary precondition for contemporary democracy. For example, technologies help collect, aggregate, and compare the statistical and demographic figures that shape governance; control the flow of news and information about public affairs that inform and (dis)connect people; create an ever-larger digital footprint that serves as the basis for innumerable policies, programs, and procedures… The list is seemingly inexhaustible. At the same time, technological developments also offer new possibilities for engaging with anti-democratic actors and ideas.
As digital technologies continue marching forth, this conference invites papers that collectively help us identify and address a disarmingly simple question in its many different aspects and forms: What are the key research agendas for digital democracy and citizenship over the next 5 years?
By bringing different disciplinary insights into conversation over this two-day event, this conference series is relational, (re-)connecting everyone with methodological, conceptual, and/or practical interests in digital democracy and citizenship. Specifically, we welcome studies and research projects that focus on issues and themes such as:
- Digital transformations of democratic institutions
- Digital networks of public debate
- Public trust in technology
- Citizens’ mediated identities and agencies
- Control/empowerment of datafied publics
- Digital methodologies for the study of democracy
- Conceptualizations of digital democracy
- Threats to democracy in the digital realm
The second iteration of this conference series will be hosted by the Digital Democracy Centre at the University of Southern Denmark.
- Abstracts (maximum 500 words) are invited for consideration as contributions to the main conference program.
- Deadline for submission of abstracts for both the main conference and the PhD workshop: April 15, 2024. Notification of accepted papers will be given on May 15, 2024. Please send your abstract to: ddc@sdu.dk
- PhD candidates wishing to take part in the PhD-workshop are asked to submit a 500-word abstract (excluding references) that specifies 1) their (broad) PhD-project idea, 2) the current phase of their PhD-project, 3) their motivation to take part in the PhD-workshop and 4) which question they would like to get answered during the workshop. During the first half of the workshop, participants will be assigned to small groups with fellow PhD-students and one principal investigator as mentor. Participants will present their PhD-project and receive feedback by the mentor and their peers. The feedback will focus on the argumentative strengths of the proposal and participants presentation skills. In the second half of the workshop, the mentors will share their insights into academic careers in an interactive discussion format.
- Conference fee: 1000 DKK for faculty, 500 DKK for early career researchers. The fee covers lunches on the two days, plus a conference dinner on the first night.
The deadline for registration is the 15th of June 2024.
Read more an sign up here: https://event.sdu.dk/democracydigitalcitizenshipconferenceseries
For more information, please contact Digital Democracy Centre at: ddc@sdu.dk