On the 22–23rd of May, the EUR hosts the conference Automating Democracy: AI Use Between Social Justice and Social Control at the Bibliotheek Rotterdam. The conference will host 8 panels, 34 presentations by international participants, and keynotes by Prof. Dr. Madalina Busuioc and Dr. Simone Natale.
- Date
- Thursday 22 May 2025, 09:00 - Friday 23 May 2025, 14:00
- Type
- Conference
- Spoken Language
- English
- Location
Bibliotheek Rotterdam, Hoogstraat 110, Rotterdam
The conference will bring together faculty members, PhD students and research MA students conducting critical research to examine AI’s potential in advancing social justice and inclusion, as well as its capacity for social control and marginalization. We are particularly interested in theoretical and empirical contributions that explore both current practices and the technological hype around:
- The role of AI in (re)shaping public policy, governance decision-making practices, and democratic oversight.
- The role of AI in empowering or suppressing political participation, citizen activism and social movements.
Join us for an exciting two-day event that will include keynote lectures, panel discussions, and a practitioner-scholar roundtable. Discussions will
focus on best practices for AI-driven progressive social change, as well as the challenges of implementing AI technologies in efforts to promote such change.
Programme
09:00 – 09:30 Arrival & coffee (Foyer)
09:30 – 10:00 Welcome (Bibliotheektheater)
10:00 – 11:15 Opening Keynote – Dr. Simone Natale AI and the automation of deception (Bibliotheektheater)
11:15 – 11:45 Coffee break (Foyer)
11:45 – 13:00 Parallel panel 1 (Bibliotheektheater)
Platform Democracy and the Politics of
Automated Decision-Making
- Mathilde Sanders – Democratizing the
Ownership of Public Decentralized Social
Media Platforms - Henri Pullinen – Exploring Views on
Constructive Moderation Strategies for
Online Political Discussion Through Social
Bot Design - Eedan Amit-Danhi, Thijs de Zee, Qinfeng Zhu- Recursive agenda-setting and the political self: A mixed-method study of automated voting-aids and their effects
- Ib T. Gulbrandsen, Sine N. Just, and Chris
Peters – GAImocracy? Exploring the use of
generative AI in the global 2024 elections
11:45 – 13:00 Parallel panel 2 (Schoolmeesterzaal)
AI Governance and Algorithmic Accountability in
Public Administration
- Margherita Ferrigno – The European Union
and ethical approaches to emerging
technologies: comparative analysis and
public administration practices - Marta Pulido Polo and Jose Manuel Mesa
Göbel – AI regulatory policy in the EU:
progress, challenges and communication
for the protection of democracy and
fundamental rights - Sebastian Sosnowski – Using new
technologies to patch the shortcomings of
New Public Management - Su Baykal and Aristotle Tympas – Assessing the Assessors – Investigating the Dutch Government’s Approach to Algorithmic Accountability
- Krisztina Rozgonyi, Mari-Liisa Parder, Colin
Porlezza, Laura Amigo, Tobias Eberwein,
Marko Milosavljević, and Marie Rathmann –
AI in Public Communication: Governance
and Accountability Mechanisms for
Democratic Control
13:00 – 14:15 Lunch (Foyer)
13:30 – 14:15 PhD/ rMA Training & Networking Session Social Media for Academic Success (Schoolmeesterzaal)
Trainer: Dr. Arianna Bussoletti
14:15 – 15:30 Parallel panel 3 (Bibliotheektheater)
AI and Journalism
- Krzysztof Wasilewski and Yvonne Zajontz – AI
and new technologies in local journalism –
for or against social participation? Case
study of Poland and Germany - Marcel Franze and Megan Hanisch –
Evolutionary progress or threat?
Evolutionary-theoretical considerations and
empirical findings on the increasing use of AI
technology in public service broadcasting in
Germany - Marco Rosichini – Journalism and AI: an
ethnographic study of negotiating practices
in knowledge production - Sevda Unal – Artificial intelligence news in
Turkish media: a framing analysis
14:15 – 15:30 Parallel panel 4 (Schoolmeesterzaal)
AI and activism/resistance
- Bjorn Beijnon – From Data Subjects to Digital Citizens: The Fediverse as a Model for Civic-Oriented AI and Algorithmic Resistance
- Luigia Tricase – Contesting AI Futures: Social
Movements and Solarpunk AI - Christen Buckley and Michael Collins – Resisting Surveillance
Capitalism; Extending the Privacy-as-Trust
Framework to Disrupt AI Use - Francesco Nasi – (Dis)empowering AI?
Power Dynamics in AI-Based Citizen
Participation Projects
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break (Foyer)
16:00 – 17:30 Practitioner roundtable (Bibliotheektheater)
17:30 – 18:00 Drinks & bites (Foyer)
19:00 Dinner downtown (participant paid)
8:45 – 9:00 Coffee (Foyer)
9:00 – 10:15 Parallel panel 5 AI and Democracy: Legitimacy, Agency, and Discourse (Bibliotheektheater)
- Mouli Bentman and Mike Dahan – Digital
Representation and the Reimagining of
Liberal Democratic Legitimacy Through
Artificial Intelligence - Gitte Stald – Sustainable democracy.Potentials and pitfalls of young citizens’ informed and democratic citizenship
- Nicolás Palomo Hernández – Doing politics through the algorithm: Using AI to ‘augment’ deliberative democracy
- Sara Pane – European Post-Digital Public Sphere: Opportunities and Challenges of Citizen Engagement in the Age of AI
- Andy Sanchez, Rita Gsenger, Marie-ThereseSekwenz, Susannah Montgomery, Jason Pridmore, and Ben Wagner – Recalibrating Automatic Politics: Interactive Intervention to Study the Impact of AI on Democracy in the EU, UK, and US
9:00 – 10:15 Parallel panel 6 Imaginaries about AI (Schoolmeesterzaal)
- Kun He – Public discourse of artificial intelligence in China: Why AI safety and on whose terms?
- Bareis Jascha – Ask Me Anything ! How ChatPGT Got Hyped Into Being
- Anne Mollen and Sigrid Kannengießer – Beyond dominant tech narratives: Imagining just AI
- Marvin Ceinos Dumont – Implementation of Blockchain in Public Services : Study of emerging tensions in the official reports of the European Union Blockchain Observatory & Forum commissioned by the European Commission
10:15 – 10:30 Coffee break (Foyer)
10:30 – 11:45 Parallel panel 7 Use of AI for politics, manipulation, and art (Bibliotheektheater)
- Maria Francesca Murru and Donatella Selva –
Generated common sense: exploring the AI’s
preferred readings about polarising topics - Michele Balducci – The Prompt A(I)rtist: a netnographic analysis of AI-generated artcommunities on Discord and Reddit
- Tanja Oblak Črnič and Nuša Detiček – Young citizens and artificial intelligence: from software tool to information and communication practice
- Livio Calabresi, Michele Zizza, and Michele Empler – Strategic AI Applications in Migration Discourse: From Manipulative Misinformation to Ethical Solutions
10:30 – 11:45 Parallel panel 8 Governance through AI And citizen-state relations (Schoolmeesterzaal)
- Sanna Valtonen, Kaarina Nikunen, and
Karoliina Talvitie-Lamberg – AI imaginaries of
automated border regime - Kaarina Nikunen, Karoliina Talvitie-Lamberg, and Sanna Valtonen – Experiences of data welfare state from the margins
- Stine Lomborg – Infrastructural dependence, ideological closure? On the political economy of the tech-heavy welfare state
- Eva Iris Otto, Cecilie Maria Lindberg Laursen and Stine Lomborg – Situating legitimacy: on the explanatory power of ‘sphere transgressions’ in empirical studies of data-driven technologies in context
11:45 – 12:00 Coffee break (Foyer)
12:00 – 13:15 Closing keynote - Government and Society (Bibliotheektheater)
Prof. Dr. Madalina Busuioc Towards a Healthier AI Discourse: How AI Shapes
13:15 – 14:00 Lunch (Foyer)
You can find more information on the official Automating Democracy website.
