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Ada Lovelace Institute
Virtual event

Book launch: Digital Technology and Democratic Theory

How digital technologies shape, reshape and affect fundamental questions about democratic theory and practice

Digital technology and democratic theory. Edited by Lucy Bernholz, Helene Landemore and Rob Reich
Date and time
6:00pm – 7:00pm, 6 May 2021 (BST)
Partners
London School of Economics
Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society

The Ada Lovelace Institute, Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics, and Stanford PACS host a special book launch of  Digital Technology and Democratic Theory.

Watch the event back here:

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Speakers

  • Archon Fung

    Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University

  • Bryan Ford

    Professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL); Director, Decentralized/Distributed Systems Lab, EPFL

  • Hélène Landemore

    Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Yale University

  • Lucy Bernholz

    Senior Research Scholar, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Stanford University; Director, Digital Civil Society Lab, Stanford University

  • Seeta Peña Gangadharan

    Associate Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics

Introduction by

One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over—and upending—nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship have all been modified by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms.

Digital Technology and Democratic Theory looks closely at one significant facet of our rapidly evolving digital lives: how technology is radically changing our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments.

To understand these transformations, this book brings together contributions by scholars from multiple disciplines to wrestle with the question of how digital technologies shape, reshape, and affect fundamental questions about democracy and democratic theory. As expectations have whiplashed—from Twitter optimism in the wake of the Arab Spring to Facebook pessimism in the wake of the 2016 US election—the time is ripe for a more sober and long-term assessment. How should we take stock of digital technologies and their promise and peril for reshaping democratic societies and institutions? To answer, this volume broaches the most pressing technological changes and issues facing democracy as a philosophy and an institution.

Keyword
Democracy
Methodology
Event

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