After more than a year of work and a review of more than 3000 sources, the OID is launching its first meta-analysis. The report is set to provide a global understanding of the current structure of the information and communication space and its impact on public debate and democracy around the world.

In this talk, Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, one of the “fathers of the Internet,” talks about his concern for privacy in the future. In 2004, he was awarded the Turing Prize, the highest honor available in computer science.

Language: English

Regular price 9,90 €

Reduced price 5,90 €

Member price 4,90 €

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.

Today, however, such "physical courage", as it is called, tends to be depreciated in favor of "moral courage", defined by Sidgwick as a readiness to “face the pains and dangers of social disapproval in the performance of what one believes to be one’s duty”.

Why did this shift occur, and what is its significance for the future of courage? These were the questions Skidelsky addressed in his talk.

Edward Skidelsky, University of Exeter, co-author of How Much is Enough? Money and the Good Life.

Commentator: Aner Barzilay, independent researcher and Visiting Fellow at the IWM.

Introduction: Ludger Hagedorn, Permanent Fellow at the IWM.

A journalist in Asia for 35 years, Maria Ressa co-founded Rappler.com, the top digital-only news site that is leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines. As Rappler’s CEO and president, Maria has endured constant political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government.

Maria was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous fights to uphold freedom of expression. She was also Time Magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year, and has received numerous other awards and recognition for her journalism and fearlessness in the face of efforts to silence her.

The Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press is delivered annually by a prominent journalist, scholar, or practitioner. Named for Mr. Richard Salant, a former president of CBS News, and a defender of the freedom of the press as well as a champion of high ethical and news standards for the press, the annual lecture is made possible through a 2007 fund established by Dr. Frank Stanton’s estate. Dr. Frank Stanton, also a former president of CBS News and staunch defender of First Amendment rights, set up the fund in honor of his longtime friend and colleague, Richard Salant, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Within the framework of a ten-week virtual research sprint hosted by the HIIG, thirteen international researchers from various disciplines came together to tackle the challenges posed by automation in content moderation. Their work resulted in policy briefings focused on algorithmic audits and on increasing the transparency and accountability of automated content moderation systems. We warmly invite you to learn more about their findings and attend their output presentations followed by a panel discussion.

Agenda

Opening remarks on the project and the research sprint by research director Wolfgang Schulz and research lead Alexander Pirang

Presentations of the research outputs by the sprint fellows:

• David Morar, guest researcher at George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs, USA
• Aline Iramina, PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow, Great Britain
• Sunimal Mendis, lecturer at the University of Tilburg, Netherlands

Followed by a panel discussion moderated by Jennifer Boone with:

• Angelica Fernandez, fellow of the research sprint and PhD candidate at the University of Luxembourg
• Philipp Otto, founder and director of the iRights.lab
• Matthias Kettemann, associated researcher at the HIIG and scientific lead of the research project ”Regulatory Structures and the Emergence of Rules in Online Spaces” at the Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung I Hans-Bredow Institut 

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

Bernard Harcourt (Columbia Law School, Professor of Law and of Political Science)

Frank Pasquale (Brooklyn Law School, Professor of Law)

Christoph Burchard (Goethe University, Professor of Criminal Justice etc.)

Indra Spiecker gen. Döhmann (Goethe University, Professor of Public Law etc.)

Jürgen Kaube (Co-Editor at Large, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

Algorithms – and the actors behind them – are surveying and impacting ever more dimensions of our modern lives. They recommend which movies to watch; they calculate risk appropriate credit scores; and they play a role in meting out “just” punishment; to only name a few areas. At the same time, they correct imperfect human decisions and add new informational dimensions to decisions prior impossible. To assess and evaluate the impeding transformations of normative orders in a predictive society, we approach algorithms in light of the juxtaposition of trust and control. Why and under which conditions do – or don’t – we trust algorithms? Indeed, can and should we trust them? Especially because their algorithmic normativity was (not) produced in justificatory fora where trust is brought about in and through social conflicts? But then, how much trust – if any – should algorithms put into us as citizens? For example, do they have to presume us non-dangerous and harmless? Vice versa, how much control do we need to retain over algorithms? And how much control should they exert over us? Can we use algorithms to control the effect of algorithms and thus create a meta-level of trust? Especially in order to negate, or as a matter of fact: to entertain, the freedom to deviate in the algorithmic society? These are but a few of the questions that internationally renowned speakers raise in “Algorithms between Trust and Control”, a lecture series convened by Indra Spiecker gen. Döhmann and Christoph Burchard, and co-organized by the research clusters ConTrust, Normative Orders and ZEVEDI in the line of the Frankfurt Talks on Information Law and under the auspices of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

The lectures will take place via Zoom. Please register to receive the login data.

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.

Jonathan Simon (UC Berkeley, Professor of Criminal Justice Law)

Algorithms – and the actors behind them – are surveying and impacting ever more dimensions of our modern lives. They recommend which movies to watch; they calculate risk-appropriate credit scores; and they play a role in meting out “just” punishment; to only name a few areas. At the same time, they correct imperfect human decisions and add new informational dimensions to decisions prior impossible. To assess and evaluate the impeding transformations of normative orders in a predictive society, we approach algorithms in light of the juxtaposition of trust and control. Why and under which conditions do – or don’t – we trust algorithms? Indeed, can and should we trust them? Especially because their algorithmic normativity was (not) produced in justificatory fora where trust is brought about in and through social conflicts? But then, how much trust – if any – should algorithms put into us as citizens? For example, do they have to presume us non-dangerous and harmless? Vice versa, how much control do we need to retain over algorithms? And how much control should they exert over us? Can we use algorithms to control the effect of algorithms and thus create a meta-level of trust? Especially in order to negate, or as a matter of fact: to entertain, the freedom to deviate in the algorithmic society? These are but a few of the questions that internationally renowned speakers raise in “Algorithms between Trust and Control”, a lecture series convened by Indra Spiecker gen. Döhmann and Christoph Burchard, and co-organized by the research clusters ConTrust, Normative Orders and ZEVEDI in the line of the Frankfurt Talks on Information Law and under the auspices of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

Professor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford. He was previously Director of Research at the Reuters Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics. His work focuses on changes in the news media, on political communication, and the role of digital technologies in both. He has done extensive research on journalism, American politics, and various forms of activism, and a significant amount of comparative work in Western Europe and beyond.

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.

Event organized by the WU Vice-Rector for Research and Human Resources

Panel discussion:

Marie-​Thérèse Claes, Pro­fes­sor and Head of the In­sti­tu­te for Gen­der & Di­ver­si­ty in Or­ga­niza­ti­ons, WU

Hu­bert von Goi­sern, world mu­si­ci­an, sin­ger, and song­wri­ter

Majid Mga­mis, As­so­cia­te Pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish li­te­ra­tu­re and cri­ti­cism, Mem­ber of Scholars at Risk

Shali­ni Rande­ria, Rec­tor of the In­sti­tu­te for Human Sci­en­ces (IWM) in Vi­en­na, Pro­fes­sor of So­cial An­thro­po­lo­gy and So­cio­lo­gy at the Gra­dua­te In­sti­tu­te of In­ter­na­tio­nal and De­ve­lo­p­ment Stu­dies (IHEID) in Ge­ne­va

Moderation:

Riem Hi­ga­zi, Foun­ding mem­ber, Pre­sen­ter, and Sta­ti­on Voice at FM4, ORF

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.

The Center’s work is guided by social philosophy and oriented towards the project of a critical theory of society. It also draws from the specific resources the humanities have to offer. “Democracy” is then not only understood as a form of government, nor is “capitalism” understood as a mere economic formation. Instead, both are treated in a broad sense as a complex ensemble of social institutions and practices or as socio-cultural life forms.

Based on the programme of the early Critical Theory, the task of the Center can be described as follows: By giving society a space for reflection and by fathoming possible courses of action, the analysis of crises is the “theoretical side of the practical process of emancipation.”

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.

Source: World Economic Forum

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.

The subject area requires interdisciplinary research, which is why the professional backgrounds of the Institute’s researchers are adequately diverse. The organisational structure of the Institute is based on two main subject areas – the field of communication science and the field of law – where the latter is not only focused on legal matters as such, but also on research concerning regulatory structures. Further, international comparative research is of increasing importance for the Institute. Thus, the Institute is actively involved in several international research networks.

The Institute is named after Hans Bredow, who played an important role in the development of broadcasting technology. He served as the “Rundfunkstaatssekretär” [State Secretary of Broadcasting] in the Weimar Republic, but stepped down from his office on the day the National Socialists took power. Later, he contributed a lot to the development of a public broadcasting system in the young Federal Republic of Germany. At that time, it also became clear that the area of media development is so important that it should be covered by an independent research institution. In 1950, Universität Hamburg and the broadcasting corporation “Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk” thus founded the Hans-Bredow-Institut as an independent institution focusing on this field of research. Since then, the Institute is a so-called “An-Institut” of Universität Hamburg: legally independent, but connected to Universität Hamburg in many ways.

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

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.

Philipp Staab is Professor of “Sociology of the Future of Work” at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF). As a sociologist he deals with the topics of technology, work, political economy and social inequality. In his research in recent years, he has focused on the leading companies of the commercial Internet such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Alibaba and Tencent, as well as various start-ups.

The event will be held in English.

Award-winning technology reporter Sarah Frier helps bring some clarity to the mysteries surrounding the tech giant in her book No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram. The Bloomberg reporter delivers stories taken from the Instagram influencers and celebrities that have helped drive the app to such rapid growth, the employees and executives who have watched from behind the scenes, and the founders of Instagram themselves who give insight into the growth and change of the service.

Join INFORUM as Frier draws from her expertise in technology to navigate through this diverse cast of sources to paint a picture of how Instagram evolved to shape the online experience and fundamentally change how we engage with society.

In this lecture, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen will revisit the history of the first twenty years of relations between platforms and news publishers to identify the underlying dynamics that have shaped the development of our digital society, and will shape it for years to come. He argues that publishers have – sometimes reluctantly, but often actively – fueled the rise of platform companies by embracing the very real opportunities they provide. This is the case even though they also challenge publishers’ historically dominant position by competing for attention and advertising and by controlling key parts of the infrastructure of free expression. In the process publishers, like the rest of us, become increasingly empowered by and dependent upon a small number of centrally placed and powerful platforms.

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics. Most of his research deals with news media organisations and their ongoing transformations, changing forms of digital media use in political and news-related contexts, political communication and campaign practices. He is involved in a wide range of different comparative research projects around the future of news, the changing business of journalism and the rise of digital media.

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)

By Frauke Steglich (Kiel Institute, Kiel Centre for Globalization)

Agenda:

Moderator: Ilias Iakovidis, Adviser for Societal Challenges, DG CONNECT

10:00-10:10 Opening remarks by Gerard de Graaf, Director F. Digital Single Market, DG CONNECT

10:10-10:50 Presentation by Janez Potočnik, United Nations Environment Programme, Co-chair of International Resource Panel

10:50-11:25 Q/A session

11:25-11:30 Conclusions by Ilias Iakovidis, Adviser for Societal Challenges, DG CONNECT

In Reinventing Prosperity, Graeme Maxton and Jorgen Randers take a radically different approach and offer thirteen politically feasible proposals to improve our world. From shortening the work year and raising the retirement age to boosting welfare and redefining what we mean by work, the authors’ suggestions challenge many long-standing economic ideas and explain how it is possible to reduce unemployment, inequality, and the pace of climate change—and still have economic growth, if society wishes.

“Do you want a cogent and accessible explanation of why our paramount policy goal of GDP growth is increasing unemployment, inequality, and environmental destruction—while reducing welfare? Then read this informative book for both answers and better policies!” Herman Daly, Emeritus Professor, University of Maryland

“The problems society faces to achieve a sustainable and desirable future are well known, but solutions seem impossible. Maxton and Randers describe thirteen politically feasible proposals that can actually solve these problems.” Prof. Robert Costanza, VC’s Chair in Public Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

“This book has the power to induce policy changes that are imperative for the creation of an equitable, peaceful and sustainable future for human society.” Rajendra K. Pachauri, past-chair, International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC); executive vice chairman, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

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).

With reference to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the Planetary Boundaries it introduces the theory and practice of Collective Stewardship as a management tool that respects the integrity of human and natural systems. Drawing on the work of transdisciplinary scientific scholars and seasoned sustainability practitioners, it shows how transformative change can be built on life’s inherent tendency to generate patterns of vitality and resilience. This ground-breaking monograph shows workable pathways to stewarding patterns of aliveness in social and ecological systems at all levels of the global society. As a highly regarded author and expert in collective leadership, Petra Kuenkel inspires academics and practitioners alike to explore new routes towards co-creating responsible futures in the era of the Anthropocene, where the human footprint has begun to change the course of planetary evolution. She invites decision-makers, researchers, planners and social activists to become stewards of systems patterns, enhance their collaborative competencies and guide life-enhancing socio-ecological interaction at scale.

The conceptual architecture the author elaborates builds on transformation literacy and boils it down to a practical guidance for planning and implementing interventions across all sectors of society. It helps bring about change through a deliberate combination of enlivening narratives, empowering metrics, enabling processes, multi-level governance, guiding regulations, and life-supporting innovation.

German and European researchers have thus far dealt only tentatively with the topic of microtargeting in election campaigns. Most of the research projects and scientific papers on the subject are from the USA. Since Barack Obama’s election campaign in 2008 at the latest, it has become clear that both Democrats and Republicans in the US are employing massively data-driven processes in their election campaigns. In the paper State of Research: Microtargeting in Germany and Europe, we summarize the current expert debate on microtargeting in political communication, point to gaps in the research and provide suggestions on where new work is needed.

The paper was commissioned by the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW. The publication can be downloaded (German) free of charge from the Media Authority’s website and from our own.

The summit brought together high-level policy makers responsible for policies related to the digital economy and key stakeholders, to exchange views and share practices and experiences in key areas of policy, look toward the future, and provide ideas for future OECD work. The agenda reflected the seven pillars of the OECD’s Going Digital integrated policy framework: enhancing access, increasing effective use, unleashing innovation, ensuring jobs, promoting social prosperity, strengthening trust and fostering market openness.

In the Global Governance Spotlight 2|2019, Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann examines the successes and deficits of previous norm-building processes and regulatory efforts in the field of social media, particularly at regional and global level. On this basis, five guidelines are named which could help to overcome the shortcomings of previous attempts of regulation.

Kettemann, Matthias C. (2019): Internationale Regeln für Soziale Medien: Menschenrechte wahren und Desinformation bekämpfen [International Rules for Social Media: Safeguarding Human Rights and Fighting Disinformation]. Global Governance Spotlight 2|2019.

The recent IPCC report emphasises that climate-related risks are significantly more dangerous to human life and to the systems that sustain us at 2^oC warming compared with 1.5^oC. Yet global action is lagging, stymied by political meandering. To avoid the worst outcomes, global carbon emissions must be cut by half by 2030 and to zero by 2050 – an unprecedented task which requires bold and compelling action. The Club of Rome – Climate Emergency Plan proposes ten action points to achieve the goal set by the historic Paris Agreement, aligned with science and economic pragmatism, to limit temperature increase to 1.5^oC.

To avoid further collapse of environmental, political and socio-economic systems, urgent leadership is required now from governments, industry and citizens. Climate change is no longer a future threat. It is already affecting billions of people across the globe and every economy. Annual losses for the US alone will reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, according to the new US Climate Assessment and continued climate related impacts could create 140 million climate migrants globally by 2050.

The Club of Rome in its seminal 1972 report The Limits to Growth alerted the world to the environmental and demographic challenges. The central message was that the quest for unlimited growth in population, material goods and resources, on a finite planet, would eventually result in the collapse of its economic and environmental systems. That prediction is clearly manifesting in the climate change crisis awe are confronted with today.

The Climate Emergency Plan of the Club of Rome was launched on December 4th 2018 at the European Parliament. You can download the full report here.

The report can be downloaded here.

Authors: Sony Kapoor Managing Director re-define.org; Dr. Belay Begashaw Director SDG Center for Africa

That Twitter cannot serve as an image of our society is due to the fact that the actual figures of users in Germany are very small, explains Hölig in the interview. Only one per cent of the population in Germany uses Twitter on a daily basis. And about 90 per cent of them only use it passively. The number of those who actively participate in Twitter discourse and contribute to the mood on Twitter is very small.

Moreover, according to Höllig's study, active Twitter users have special personality traits. They are more opinionated, extroverted and generally less anxious than the rest of the online community. This does not reflect a representative picture of society as a whole.

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 :

• Simone d’Alessandro, University of Pisa -
• Daniel Mügge, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Professor of Political Arithmetic
• Bjorn Döhring, European Commission, Head of Unit for Economic situation, forecasts, business and consumer surveys
• Arthur Turrell, Co-Author of “An Interdisciplinary Model for Macroeconomics” (Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Jan.2018)
• Nicole Dewandre, European Commission, Joint Research Centre

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

With socio-economic inequality as a major public concern, researchers have long been interested in measuring how persistent inequalities are between generations. Do the descendants from successful families tend to remain successful? Or is there ‘intergenerational mobility’, such that an individual’s origin is not a prime determinant of his or her socio-economic status?

A new study by Sebastian Braun from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Jan Stuhler from the University Madrid which is published in the March 2018 issue of the Economic Journal examines the persistence of socio-economic status over four genera­tions in twentieth century Germany (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecoj.12453/full).The researchers conclude that on average, about 60 percent of socio-economic prospects were transmitted from one generation to the next, irrespective of whether socio-economic success is measured in terms of educational or occupational advantages.