Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. The author of Know How, Languages in Context, Knowledge and Practical Interests and How Propaganda Works also writes for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Review, The Guardian and Project Syndicate. He is currently working with David Beaver on the forthcoming book Politics of Language: An Essay in Non-Ideal Theory, and during his stay as IWM Visiting Fellow, on Fascism as a Social Kind together with Susanna Siegel.

Marci Shore, Associate Professor at the Department of History at Yale University and IWM Visiting Fellow, will introduce the speaker and moderate the discussion.

Topics included techno-optimism and -pessimism, the role of ideas in politics, the continuing relevance of history to geopolitics, the failure and the success of predictions from the past, the intellectual legacies of the late twentieth century, and the war in Ukraine and its possible consequences for coming decades.

Yuval Noah Harari is a Professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of bestsellers Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Sapiens: A Graphic History, and the forthcoming Unstoppable Us - and has sold over 40 Million books worldwide. Harari writes regularly for publications such as The Guardian, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Economist - addressing current world affairs like COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine from a macro-historical perspective.

Timothy Snyder is the Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University and IWM Permanent Fellow. His fifteen books, which include The Road to Unfreedom, On Tyranny, Bloodlands, and Black Earth, have been translated into more than forty languages and have received a similar number of awards. He holds state orders and honorary doctorates and has appeared in documentaries, on network television, and in major films.

The conversation was moderated by IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev.

Jan-Werner Müller is Professor for Political Theory at Princeton University. He is co-founder of the European College of Liberal Arts (ECLA; today: Bard College Berlin). In addition to numerous published articles in the international press, Müller is the author of various monographs such as “Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth-Century Europe” (2013), “Was ist Populism? Ein Essay” (2016), or “Furcht und Freiheit. Für einen anderen Liberalismus” (2019). His essay “Was ist Populismus?” has been translated into numerous languages and is considered a central work for understanding contemporary political developments. Currently, Müller is developing a reassessment of intermediary institutions in democracy, which he will examine in the lecture.

On 3 March 2020, AlgorithmWatch launched a project to monitor Instagram’s newsfeed algorithm. Volunteers could install a browser add-on that scraped their Instagram newsfeeds. Data was sent to a database we used to study how Instagram prioritizes pictures and videos in a user’s timeline.

Over the last 14 months, about 1,500 volunteers installed the add-on. With their data, we were able to show that Instagram likely encouraged content creators to post pictures that fit specific representations of their body, and that politicians were likely to reach a larger audience if they abstained from using text in their publications (Facebook denied both claims). Although we could not conduct a precise audit of Instagram’s algorithm, this research is among the most advanced studies ever conducted on the platform. The project was supported by the European Data Journalism Network and by the Dutch foundation SIDN. It was done in partnership with Mediapart in France, NOS, Groene Amsterdammer and Pointer in the Netherlands, Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany and was covered by dozens of news outlets over the world.

by Nicolas Kayser-Bril

Eliot Borenstein ist Professor für Russistik und Slawistik an der New York University. Unter seinen vielfach ausgezeichneten Publikationen zur politischen Medienkultur Russlands finden sich zuletzt »Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture« [2007], »Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism« [2019] und »Pussy Riot: Speaking Punk to Power« [2020]. Demnächst erscheint seine Monographie zu viralen Netzphänomenen in Russland mit dem Titel »Meanwhile in Russia…: Russian Internet Memes and Viral Video«. Borenstein ist zudem Herausgeber des Blogs »All the Russians« für das NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia«.

The lecture series “Gebaute Ordnung” (Built Order) will investigate spaces of power during the 2021 summer semester. In particular, the speakers will explore how aspects of the architectural and spatial perceptibly interlock with political and social orders. Four evening lectures will touch on the topics of architectures of integration, exclusion and annihilation, representation and legitimation, and the securing of power.

SEBASTIANO FABBRINI

The Architecture of European Integration

“Architekturen des Ordnens” is a four-year (2020-2023) interdisciplinary research project of the Goethe University Frankfurt and Technical University Darmstadt, with the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Theory and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum as non-university partners.

Such questions are complex, and it for this reason that the Research Centre "Normative Orders" of Goethe University in Frankfurt works on an interdisciplinary basis: from philosophy, history, political science and law to ethnology, economics, sociology and theology.

Growing public discontent with globalization has led to increased nationalist and protectionist policies in economies around the globe. These policies affect how companies operate internationally, especially with regard to their global value chains, resulting in important implications for international development. In this panel, experts discuss the potential effects of a slower globalization or de-globalization on the economic development of emerging and developing countries.

This event is organized by the Department of Global Business and Trade and will be held online only

Lecture / discussion:

Hafiz Mirza, Lead, Responsible Agricultural Investment Research, Agriculture & Investment Economic Law & Policy Programme, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Canada/Switzerland

Rajneesh Narula, The John H. Dunning Chair in International Business Henley Business School, United Kingdom

Annie Wei, Chair in International Business, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

Abel Kinoti, Dean, School of Business, Founding Chair, Academy of International Business – Africa, Innovation and Social Business Incubation Consultant in Africa, China Research-Based Study Program, Riara University, Nairobi, Kenya

Moderation:

Alex Mohr, Professor of International Business, Department of Global Business and Trade, WU

In the latest issue of SWP Comment, PD Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann and Annegret Bendiek explain why the new EU cybersecurity strategy is too one-sided. The focus should not only be on deterrence and defense, but also on trust and security. They advocate for promoting cyber diplomacy in the European Union.

Bendiek, A.; Kettemann, M. C. (2021): Revisiting the EU Cybersecurity Strategy: A Call for EU Cyber Diplomacy. In: SWP Comment

With Dr. Peer Illner (Normative Orders, Goethe University) and Prof. Darrel Moellendorf (Normative Orders, Goethe University)

Welcome Address by: Prof. Rainer Forst (Normative Orders, Goethe University)

Organized by: Dr. Peer Illner (Author)

Many communities in the United States have been abandoned by the state. What happens when natural disasters add to their misery? This book looks at the broken relationship between the federal government and civil society in times of crises.

Mutual aid has gained renewed importance in providing relief when hurricanes, floods and pandemics hit, as cuts to state spending put significant strain on communities struggling to survive. Harking back to the self-organised welfare programmes of the Black Panther Party, radical social movements from Occupy to Black Lives Matter are building autonomous aid networks within and against the state. However, as the federal responsibility for relief is lifted, mutual aid faces a profound dilemma: do ordinary people become complicit in their own exploitation?

Reframing disaster relief through the lens of social reproduction, Peer Illner tracks the shifts in American emergency aid, from the economic crises of the 1970s to the COVID-19 pandemic, raising difficult questions about mutual aid’s double-edged role in cuts to social spending. As sea levels rise, climate change worsens and new pandemics sweep the globe, Illner’s analysis of the interrelations between the state, the market and grassroots initiatives will prove indispensable.

Iyad Rahwan is director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, where he founded and leads the Center for Humans and Machines. He is also an honorary professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Technische Universität Berlin. Until June 2020, he was an Associate Professor of Media Arts & Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Rahwan holds a PhD in Information Systems (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Melbourne, Australia. His work lies at the intersection of computer science and human behavior, with a focus on collective intelligence, large-scale cooperation, and the societal impact of artificial intelligence and social media. In addition to various journal articles, Iyad Rahwan is co-author of the study Reply to: Life and death decisions of autonomous vehicles and together with Jean-François Bonnefon he published the paper Machine Thinking, Fast and Slow (both 2020).

The event will be held in English.

The Center in Brief

We bring together the sharpest, most thoughtful people from around the globe to tackle the biggest challenges presented by the Internet. As an interdisciplinary, University-wide center with a global scope, we have an unparalleled track record of leveraging exceptional academic rigor to produce real- world impact. We pride ourselves on pushing the edges of scholarly research, building tools and platforms that break new ground, and fostering active networks across diverse communities. United by our commitment to the public interest, our vibrant, collaborative community of independent thinkers represents a wide range of philosophies and disciplines, making us a unique home for open-minded inquiry, debate, and experimentation.

The basis of our work We have dedicated ourselves to the delivery, stimulation and cultivation of political knowledge in Bavaria and Germany above all party lines. Thus we are working towards a stronger foundation of our democracy and its international relations. Not only do we keep a focus on state and federal policies, but to various sites of political processes worldwide and pick up on the latest topics in politics, economy and society and make them a subject of discussion. The academy was founded by the Bavarian Parliament in 1957 as an autonomous and independent public-law institution. The academy is financed by the Free State of Bavaria, but retains full independence in the statutory framework set forth by the Bavarian Ministry of Culture and Education. It cannot be compared to any other institution for political education in Germany. We conduct – partially in cooperation with other partners – courses, seminars, workshops and scholarly conferences on our own premises in Tutzing on Lake Starnberg. Besides that, we arrange conferences and roundtable discussions with politicians and other figures of public prominence throughout Bavaria. Most of the seminars we offer are organized by our own renowned experts who invite subject familiar professionals from all over the world. In exceptional cases, we host seminars with other institutions.

Aaron Ben-Ze'ev is a professor of philosophy at the University of Haifa (Israel), of which he was president for many years; research in social philosophy, perception theory, and everyday psychology; numerous publications on the historical and contemporary politics of emotions, including "Love Online: Emotions on the Internet" (2004), "The Logic of Emotions. A Critique of Emotional Intelligence" (2009), "The Arc of Love. How Our Romantic Lives Change over Time" (2019).

Introduction and talk: Ethel Matala de Mazza

Aaron Ben-Ze'ev is professor of philosophy at the University of Haifa (Israel), of which he was president for many years; research in social philosophy, perception theory, and everyday psychology; numerous publications on the historical and contemporary politics of emotions, including "Love Online: Emotions on the Internet" (2004), "The Logic of Emotions. A Critique of Emotional Intelligence" (2009), "The Arc of Love. How Our Romantic Lives Change over Time" (2019).

Die Einwahldaten werden nach der Anmeldung übermittelt. Oxford University Press 2020 Veranstalter: Forschungsverbund "Normative Ordnungen" der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung | Hans-Bredow-Institut, Sustainable Computing Lab, WU Wien, Humboldt-Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft (HIIG) und Oxford University Press

Elizabeth Hansen and Marc Hand have released a paper proposing a new National Trust for Local News that would support the financing and transition of local newspapers to new ownership and governance structures. They will present the outline of their proposal in this webinar, and engage in conversation with fellow panelists about the future of local newspapers. Steve Waldman, CEO and cofounder of Report for America will discuss his similar “replanting” proposal, recently published by the Open Markets Institute. Geoff Davis, CEO of the Sorenson Impact Center at the University of Utah, will comment on how social impact capital might be mobilized to respond to the business crisis in local journalism, and how these proposals relate to other new institutions being built to solve major social challenges. Setti Warren, Executive Director of the Shorenstein Center and former Mayor of Newton, MA, will moderate and comment on the importance of local journalism to public life in cities and towns.

In debate:

Lubomír Zaorálek, Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic and former Foreign Minister,

and

Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences.

The discussion was moderated by Dagmar Rychnovská, a political scientist, lecturer at the University of Sussex.

Key findings in Terms of Disservice include:

• “The exploitative rake of data and attention on the path to natural monopoly”: The dominant internet firms deal in a novel currency with consumers based on data and attention — and through it have become natural monopolies.
• “The radical commercialization of decision making”: Personal data is collected at a mind-blowing rate and level of granularity. Internet firms engage in radical, “commercialized bias” — and have marketized the segmentation and splicing of society.
• “The dilemma of attending to content policy reform”: Our immediate attention to matters of content policy reform is misplaced; the more important target in the realm of Big Tech reform is fundamental economic regulation of the industry.

In her lecture Joanna Bryson will argue that there are really only two problems humanity has to solve: sustainability and inequality, or put another way: security and power. Or put a third way: how big of a pie can we make, and how do we slice up that pie? Life is not a zero-sum game. We use the security of sociality to construct public goods where everyone benefits. But still, every individual needs enough pie to thrive, and this is the challenge of inequality. Joanna Bryson will argue that understanding these processes answers the questions above. She will then look at how AI is presently affecting both these problems.

Joanna J Bryson, Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School, is an academic recognised for broad expertise on intelligence, its nature, and its consequences. She advises governments, transnational agencies, and NGOs globally, particularly in AI policy. She holds two degrees each in psychology and AI (BA Chicago, MSc & MPhil Edinburgh, PhD MIT). Her work has appeared in venues ranging from reddit to the journal Science. She continues to research both the systems engineering of AI and the cognitive science of intelligence, with present focuses on the impact of technology on human cooperation, and new models of governance for AI and ICT.

On the occasion of this year’s 20th anniversary of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), the Berlin-based Think-and-Do Tank Energy Watch Group (EWG) presents a legislative proposal to stimulate the system integration of renewable energy. The underlying purpose of the policy proposal is to allow renewable energy sources to finally assume responsibility for the system security of the power supply – i.e. to cover the required energy demand at every hour of the year. With a so-called combined power plant tariff, the instrument intends to stimulate investments for full demand coverage by 100% renewable energy. Based on own techno-economic cost estimates and a legal examination of EU regulations, the EWG proposes a fixed-feed-in-tariff of 8 cents/kWh, supported by a sliding market premium.

While renewables keep setting records in terms of their shares of national electricity mixes – Germany has recently hit the 50% mark –, a full transformation to an entirely renewable-based energy system is not yet widely regarded to be a tangible reality. One of the main reasons is the prevailing mistrust of the ability of renewables to provide year-round supply. Many scientific studies have already shown that a complete conversion to renewables is not only critical for reasons of climate protection, but also that it is technologically feasible (in combination with storage technologies and digital control technology) at any hour of the year and at cost-effective prices. What is still missing, however, is a legal basis to enable the market penetration of reliable and adequate 100% renewable energy systems.

Safiya Umoja Noble is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the Department of Information Studies and serves as the Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. She is the author of a best-selling book on racist and sexist algorithmic bias in search engines titled: Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism.

Sarah T. Roberts serves as an Assistant Professor of Information Studies at UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies. Roberts is a leading authority on “commercial content moderation”, the term she coined to describe the work of those responsible for making sure the photos, videos and stories posted to commercial websites fit within legal, ethical and the site’s own guidelines and standards. Her book, Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media, was released on Yale University Press in 2019.

Elizabeth Dwoskin, a Silicon Valley correspondent at The Washington Post, covers the rise of data mining, machine learning and AI throughout the tech industry and in the economy at large. Dwoskin’s recent articles – from smartphone apps that map infection pathways to new trends in consumer habits that give way to greater market monopolization – offer readers around the world fresh insight on what’s at play amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Since the 1990s he has played a role in characterizing the role of information commons and decentralized collaboration to innovation, information production, and freedom in the networked economy and society. His books include The Wealth of Networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom (Yale University Press 2006), which won academic awards from the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, and the McGannon award for social and ethical relevance in communications. In 2012 he received a lifetime achievement award from Oxford University in recognition of his contribution to the study and public understanding of the Internet and information goods. His work is socially engaged, winning him the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award in 2011, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award for 2007, and the Public Knowledge IP3 Award in 2006. It is also anchored in the realities of markets, cited as “perhaps the best work yet about the fast moving, enthusiast-driven Internet” by the Financial Times and named best business book about the future in 2006 by Strategy and Business. Benkler has advised governments and international organizations on innovation policy and telecommunications, and serves on the boards or advisory boards of several nonprofits engaged in working towards an open society.

His work can be freely accessed at http://www.benkler.org.

This publication gives an overview of actors and areas of action and stresses that collective engagement is needed more than ever to further develop Internet governance, to strengthen multistakerholderism as well as multilateralism and to hinder the fragmentation of the net. The publication was created by iRights.Lab on behalf the FES.

Here you find the online version of "Who Governs the Internet?"

Mit: Dr. Linda Monsees (Autorin, Postdoktorandin am Exzellenzcluster "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen"), Prof. Peter Burgess (Professor and Chair of Geopolitics of Risk at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris) und Prof. Dr. Nicole Deitelhoff (Direktorin des Leibniz-Instituts Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, Principal Investigator des Exzellenzclusters "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen", Professorin für Internationale Beziehungen und Theorien globaler Ordnungen der Goethe-Universität)

Panelists included:

• Prof. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, faculty director of the Initiative for Institutional Anti-Racism and Accountability and Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School
• Prof. Ruha Benjamin, Associate Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University
• Latoya Peterson, journalist, digital media consultant, co-founder of Racialicious, and current Director of Culture at Glow Up Games

Moderator: Dr. Joan Donovan, Research Director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project

CV

John P. McCormick is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Carl Schmitt’s Critique of Liberalism: Against Politics as Technology (Cambridge University Press, 1997); Weber, Habermas and Transformations of the European State: On Constitutional, Social and Supranational Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2007); Machiavellian Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2011); and Reading Machiavelli (Princeton 2018). Professor McCormick has received the following fellowships: Fulbright Scholarship, the Center for European Law & Politics, the University of Bremen in Germany (1994 – 95); Jean Monnet Fellowship, the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (1995 – 96); Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship, Harvard University (2008 – 09); Rockefeller Foundation Resident Fellowship, Bellagio, Italy (2013); and National Endowment for the Humanities Grant (2017 – 18).

Panellists:

• Dr Cemal Karakas, Policy Analyst, European Parliamentary Research Services, European Parliament
• Stanislas Jourdan, Head of Positive Money Europe, Former Coordinator of the European Citizens’ Initiative for Basic Income and co-Founder of the French Movement for Basic Income
• Sophie Swaton, University of Lausanne, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, Author of “Pour un revenu de transition écologique” (2018)
• Jeroen Van Ranst, CSC, Youth Officer for the Flemish part of Belgium
• Ludovic Voet, CSC, Youth Officer for the French-speaking part of Belgium

Panellists:

• Efi Achtsióglou, Greek Minister of Labour
• Christian Felber, Economy for the Common Good
• Leida Rijnhout, SDG Watch Steering Committee
• Patrick ten Brink, European Environmental Bureau, Director of EU Policy
• Joost Koorte, European Commission, DG EMPL, Director General

Panellists:

• Guillaume Pitron, Author of “La guerre des métaux rares”
• José Bellver, Researcher at FUHEM Ecosocial, Member of the Transitions Forum and the Inclusive Economy Group
• Paul Hodson, European Commission, DG ENER, Energy Efficiency Unit
• Doris Schroecker, European Commission, DG Industrial Technologies, Research and Innovation, Head of Strategy Unit

Panellists:

• Fritz Hinterberger, Founding President of Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI)
• Olivier de Schutter, Professor at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and at SciencesPo (Paris), former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (2008-2014)
• Patrizia Heidegger, Global Policies Director at the EEB
• Luisa Santos, Business Europe

While the services provided in the platform economy are very diverse, the platforms share several characteristics. They are multinational companies which offer their services in a number of countries. They all claim that they are not employers and present themselves as neutral mediators between customers und service providers. Workers in the platform economy have no employment relationships and therefore no social security and no entitlements like annual leave, sickness pay etc. Despite refusing responsibility for the workers, the platforms fulfill typical roles of employers like organizing and controlling the labor process.

We invite to discussing these questions together with:

- Steven Hill, journalist, lecturer and political professional based in the United States, is currently Journalist in Residence at the WZB. He is author of several books, with his latest being Die Startup Illusion: Wie die Internet-Ökonomie unseren Sozialstaat ruiniert (published in German) and Raw Deal: How the “Uber Economy” and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers, which was selected by The Globalist as one of the Top Ten Books of 2015.

- Sabine Pfeiffer: professor of sociology at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her research deals with the relationship between technology and labor, in particular with the impact of the internet and digital technologies on workers, work organization, and skills.

- M. Six Silberman, project secretary, IG Metall. He is currently responsible for the trade union‘s projects aiming at organizing platform workers. He was one of the creators of Turkopticon, an online system supporting workers of the „Amazon Mechanical Turk“ platform.

This year’s mini-conference focuses on the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning for policy making. AI has begun to permeate many aspects of our lives, from the way we work and communicate to how we treat diseases. Governments' increasingly use algorithmic tools, for example in law enforcement or in making decisions about the allocation of resources and social benefits. While AI has enormous potential to increase the quality and efficiency of many goods and services, its use also entails legal, ethical, and consumer protection challenges that need to be carefully assessed. How can we effectively govern the use of machine learning algorithms for decision-making? How can we combine human skills and the strengths of algorithms to maximize societal gains? How can we ensure accountability, fairness, transparency, and the mitigation of potential biases due to algorithmic and human decision making? This mini-conference brings together leading experts to discuss the road ahead for using AI tools in public policy for the good of society.

Sprecherinnen und Sprecher

Daniel Björkegren (Assistant Professor of Economics, Brown University)

Joanna Bryson (Professor of Ethics and Technology, Hertie School of Governance)

Anna Christmann (Member of the German Bundestag, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)

Cass Sunstein (Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University)

Moderated by Hannes Ullrich (DIW Berlin and University of Copenhagen)