virtual and on-site event in Rome, Italy.
IFDaD 2022 // second edition // November 17th - 18th 2022
INTERNATIONAL FORUM on DIGITAL and DEMOCRACY
Since the first edition of the Forum, in December 2020, the stretching of pandemic control measures constrained furthermore individual freedoms. In some cases, it provided legitimacy to authoritarian shift in frail democratic governance. According to Democracy Index in 2021 global democracy continued its decline and experienced its biggest annual drop since 2010 after the global financial crisis. Whereas even the United States, the stronghold of democracy, in occasion of the Capitol attack, showed to be unshielded to the outburst of illiberal forces.
For fragile democracies difficult times lie ahead. However, if the spirit of democracy and its needs remains strong among people, recovery hopes are also to be placed in the righteous use of digital technologies.
The expected outcome of the Forum is to gain a greater understanding and shared view on how digital technologies can positively affect electoral process and pluralism. As a follow-up of the debate of the first edition, the Forum will explore and develop the interplay between digital technology and data, political participation, and governance. Altogether with two additional focus: the functioning of eGovernment and disinformation.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Internet and algorithms caused a transformation of the centennials democratic processes. When exploited for political purposes digital tools affect the functioning of institutions created to evolve at human speed and not at the exponential pace and massive scale of digital technologies.
In the effort to gain a better understanding on how democracy can be strengthened in an era of rapid technological changes, the Forum engages scholars and experts in a Call for Papers on one of the following areas:
1 | Technology plays a major role in shaping the political landscape
How technology can be positively deployed to underpin political institutions.
How can an equitable access to technology be ensured?
How can digital technology encourage greater engagement in civil society?
2 | Centralized control from the public administration software/data represents a dominant power which could lead to abuse people’s live scrutiny: from Surveillance Capitalism (GAFA) to Surveillance eGovernment
How should eGovernment systems be designed and built to be compliant to democratic principles.
Can a well-designed digital tools enhance liberal values and build up civic participation?
What possible organizational and procedural oversight and accountability measures should be envisioned?
3 | Technology-fueled disinformation has toxic societal impact on democratic political culture, providing severe polarization which damages all institutions essential to democracy
Are social media to be considered a private space or a public service?
How to fine tune them to secure free and confidential communications?
Does content moderation affect freedom of expression?
Can online moderation of social platforms improve the wellness of digital communities?
HOW TO SUBMIT
Proposals will be reviewed single-blind and do not need to be anonymized before submission. Paper content must be original and relevant to one of the tracks. Authors are required to ensure accuracy of quotations, citations, diagrams, maps, and tables. The paper should be in English and should be no longer than 10 pages including references when formatted according to the downloadable Word or Latex template. An overleaf template is available here.
Selected contributions will be presented to the conference either as oral presentation or poster presentation.
To submitting authors, the selection of one among the four tracks is required using EasyChair
IMPORTANT DATES
Paper submission deadline: July 31st, 2022
Notification: October 15th, 2022
Camera-ready: November 1st, 2022
PUBLICATION
Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings of the conference and published by CEUR in the CEUR-WS.org: AI*IA Series. CEUR is a free open-access publication service of Sun SITE Central Europe.
Democracy's a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy.
As soon as you stop being responsible to it and allow it to turn into scare tactics, it's no longer democracy.
It's something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism.
Sam Shepard
KNOWLEDGE PARTNERS
Based on the concept politics meet academia which worked successfully in the 2020 edition: 14 guest speakers, over 840 attendees and over 4 thousand unique visitors, the Forum programs encompass:
- Institutional program with government leaders talking about action, progresses and challenges of digital democracies governance.
- Academic program with talks from high-level experts and scholars presenting selected works resulting from the Call for Papers
- Interactive sessions where the participants will engage with experts and peers in live discussions.
Knowledge Partners are the cornerstones of the event. Representing stakeholders from different legal systems and jurisdictions, they bring in global and local voices with thematic deepening on tackling the complexity of digital sphere with democratic values and civil rights. In their role they:
- disseminate the Call for Papers in their circles
- are entitled to a representative in the Program Committee and participate to the papers evaluation.
Applications to be submitted at info@ifdad.org
COMMITTEES
Scientific Committee
Paolo Benanti
Siriwat William Chhem
Danilo Doneda
Gry Hasselbalch
Stefania Milan
Gianluca Misuraca
Frank Pasquale
Jeffrey Sachs
Ehud Shapiro
Audrey Tang
Tommaso Valletti
Organizing Committee
Giorgio De Michelis
Patrizia Feletig
Andrea Loreggia
Luca Monti
Francesco Saverio Nucci
Stefano Quintarelli
Carlos Santiso
Edoardo Viganò
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