Workshop: Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy

The crises of democracy in and across different societies can be articulated as crises of public spaces. In any theory of democracy, be it electoral, liberal, radical, or otherwise, the public spaces feature prominently as one of the core ingredients for democratic societies. In fact, most constitutions create, require, and/or protect public spaces in one way or another. Our expectations for public spaces are correspondingly high. We expect them to foster and form human relationships, offer everyone equal opportunities to participate, and structure and facilitate public debates, while being safe, activating, and inspiring. This begs the question: Do we expect too much?

Concept
Program
Venue

Concept Note (Teaser)

In the last decades, information and communication technologies, such as social media platforms, algorithmic practices of categorization, ranking and sorting and, most recently, generative AI, have transformed the way we relate to each other online and offline. Our understanding of distance, proximity, embeddedness, and surrounding have changed. The meaning of being, becoming and belonging together, of what is required to form a community, has shifted. We don’t need to be physically close to form friendships, or to have seen and touched each other to form a group. At the same time, the personalization of digital experiences may lead to increasingly fragmented perceptions of reality. Are we experiencing a multiplication of voices, or is it just noise that distracts and deafens us?

In this context, capturing and diagnosing the digital public space has become a slippery endeavor. It seems to evade our established disciplined methodologies. The tendency to use analogies, resort to metaphors and in particular to anthropomorphize pose new and difficult questions in the context of digital technologies. Established concepts that traditionally provided the vocabulary to discuss threats to democracy do not seem to be able to grasp the situation anymore. Conventional categories, such as public and private (law), market and state, physical and virtual, human and machine, appear to lose their ordering potential. For instance, the obligations of businesses to respect human rights —enshrined in legal instruments manufactured to protect against the state— are still intensely debated.

This assessment calls for a deep dive into the foundational configurations of the public space from the perspective of different disciplines, to reach more productive modes of analysis, diagnosis and possible ways forward. Against this backdrop, the humanet3 research group aims to position itself as a hub to facilitate a conversation between different strands and modes of thinking. To this end, we want to explore the (digital) public space in our first humanet3 workshop along the following two configurative lines, each represented by one panel. They are intended to serve as a thought-provoking statement, from which we invite you to start re-imagining the digital public space together with us.

Download the Full Concept Note (PDF)

Program

(as of February 13, 2025)

Thursday, 13th February 2025

Forces: People and Profit in the Digital Public Space

08:30 – 09:15: Check-in and Coffee

09:15 – 09:30: Welcoming remarks

09:30 – 11:00: Panel I – Commodities and Common Goods in the Digital Public Space                                             

Chair: Germán Oscar Johannsen

  • Catalina Goanta: Commercial constitutionalism and the New Social Media
  • Raffaela Kunz: Scholar-Led Journals as Digital Commons: Resisting Commodification and Reclaiming Knowledge in the Digital Public Space
  • Sarah Hinck: Markets for People

11:00 – 11:30: Coffee Break

11:30 – 13:00: Panel II – Digital Public Spaces for and by the People

Chair: Erik Tuchtfeld

  • Clara Iglesias Keller: Democratic Governance in Digital Platforms: The Role of Law and Regulation
  • Thorsten Thiel: From Clickbait to Civic Debate: Media Vouchers as a Way to Reinvigorate Democracy
  • Gijs van Maanen: Collective data governance: from commons to community washing

13:00 – 13:50: Lunch

13:50 – 14:00: Group Picture in the Foyer

14:00 – 15:30: Panel III – A New Industrial Policy Approach to Digital Public Spaces

Chair: Josef Drexl/Germán Oscar Johannsen

15:30 – 16:00: Coffee Break

Interrelations: The Individual and the Collective in the Digital Public Space

16:00 – 17:30: Panel IV – Democratic Deliberation in the Digital Public Space

Chair: Anna Sophia Tiedeke

17:30 – 18:30: Transfer to Dinner

18:30 – 19:30: Dinner at Sironi Schöneberg, Goltzstraße 36, 10781 Berlin (Google Maps)

19:30 – 21:00: Discussion – Reflections on Digital Public Spaces for Democracy (at the Restaurant)

Friday, 14th February 2025

Interrelations: The Individual and the Collective in the Digital Public Space (continued)

09:00 – 10:30: Panel V – Participation in the Digital Public Space

Chair: Anna Sophia Tiedeke

  • Iyad Rahwan: What role for global public opinion in AI regulation? The moral machine experiment
  • Sandra Wachter: Generative AI, hallucinations and careless speech: how artificially created mistruths are poisoning our shared reality, history and common knowledge
  • Raphaële Xenidis: Troubled subjects: algorithmic clustering and legal subjectivation techniques

10:30 – 11:00: Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:30: Panel VI – Perceptions of the Digital Public Space

Chair: Erik Tuchtfeld

  • Ophelia Deroy: Why our attention has always been under influence, and when it is a good thing
  • Chaewon Yun: Generative AI’s “Perception” of the Digital Public Space: The Biased Data Problem
  • Kebene Wodajo: A structural critique of the digital public space

12:30 – 13:30: Lunch

13:30 – 15:00: Panel VII – Alternative Infrastructures for the Digital Public Space

Chair: Chaewon Yun

  • Aline Blankertz: Dynamics between community-led and ad-driven platforms
  • Paul-Christian Britz: Trying out new things in the media landscape
  • Paul Sharratt: Can Digital Public Spaces Exist Without Public Investment in Digital Infrastructure?

15:00 – 15:30: Closing Summary

List of Participants (PDF)
Program (PDF)

Venue

The workshop takes place at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB), Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin (Google Maps). It’s a five minute walk from the Breitenbachplatz station (U3). You can find more information about how to reach the Institute here.

In case we took care of your accommodation, you are staying at the Harnack House, Ihnestr. 16-20, 14195 Berlin (Google Maps). The closest public transport station is Freie Universität (Thielplatz) (U3), three stations away from Breitenbachplatz. Directions to the Harnack House can be found here.

The rooms are available from 3pm on the day of arrival, you must check out by 11am. They also offer a great breakfast (included in the room rate). More information about the stay can be found here.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the generous financial support of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.