June 17-18, 2021

Hybrid event

The spread of digital technologies has contributed to a multi-faceted change of democratic orders, actors and practices. We are observing a profound redistribution of communication and political power in the long-term evolution of democracies – not least due to the emergence of social media. Traditional mass media are losing their privileged position as gatekeepers of the public sphere; social media platforms are establishing new norms of social relevance and are simultaneously lending a voice to ideas, opinions and actors which used to be marginalized.

This development seems full of ambivalences and the shifting conditions of communication have spawned a situation of democracy in permanent flux. At the same time, current debates on how digital technologies have changed public spheres and impacted democratic systems tend to be scattered across different academic disciplines, political arenas and civil society.

The 2021 annual Weizenbaum Conference entitled “Democracy in Flux – Order, Dynamics and Voices in Digital Public Spheres” aims to bring together these various perspectives and to initiate an interdisciplinary exchange on the linkages between digital public spheres and democracy as a whole.

Keynotes:

• Helen Margetts (Oxford Internet Institute | United Kingdom)
• Matthew Hindman (George Washington University | United States)
• Daniel Ziblatt (WZB Berlin Social Science Center and Harvard University | Germany & United States)

Further information about the conference programme and registration can be found at: https://www.weizenbaum-conference.de/