23. August 2018, 15:50 - 17:30 Uhr
Hamburg University, VMP9/B528
Digitalization is often said to pose a fundamental challenge to democracy. Diagnoses range from societal polarization to algorithmic decision-making, from sidelining the institutions of democratic will formation to undermining the capacity of sovereign nation states to act. While all these challenges are actively discussed in the public there has not been much of a theoretical debate about how to react to the structural changes that societies experience in the course of the digital transformation. The panel -organized by Thorsten Thiel – adressed, whether the disinterested attitude of most theorists still suffices, or whether, how and in what regards democratic theory has to adapt its premises and perspectives in order to inform our judgment on the fast-changing societal order. Contributions came from Janosik Herder, Karoline Helbig, Alexander Weiss, Martin Oppelt, Anja Mihr, Isabella Herrmann, and Jasmin Siri. Due to the high number of submissions there has been a second part of the panel (on September 26), chaired by Jasmin Siri, with presentations by Michael Oswald, Andreas Schäfer, Thorsten Thiel, and Wulf Loh.