This is a one-day public forum organised as a collaboration between the two BrIAS programmes: Sustainable Robotics and Democratic Governance. Through this forum we aim to foster conversations and promote close collaborations among key stakeholders who are closely connected to the theme of democratic governance, with the goal to collectively think of democratic challenges in practice.
We focus on five key areas:
1. Polarization, populism, and violence
2. Democratic short-termism and sustainability
3. Technology, misinformation, and AI
4. Inequality and inclusion
5. Democratic Innovations
Beyond these areas, we pay specific attention to the role of cities and art in democratic resilience.
To this end, we bring academics, members of civil society organizations and public administrations together to:
• Discuss the main challenges to democratic governance
• Raise the big questions that need to be addressed
• Strengthen the link between academic and stakeholders’ knowledge
The Forum combines talk duos on key dimensions of democratic governance, as well as smaller creative workshops.
Program
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Welcome |
| 09:30 – 09:45 | Introduction Marius Gilbert, Vice-Rector for Research & Diffusion, and Scientific Culture & Mediation Frank Deconinck, BrIAS Director Emanuele Garone and Ann Nowe, 2023 – 2025 Program Directors Silvia Erzeel and Emilie van Haute, 2025 – 2027 Program Directors |
| 09:45 – 10:45 | Launch talk duos (academia / society) Polarisation, populism and violence Eva Jaspers (Utrecht University) Maarten Van Alstein (Vlaams Vredesinstituut) Short-termism and sustainability Emmanuel Slautsky (ULB) Karim Sheik Hassan (CERAC) Technology, disinformation and AI Paolo Turrini (Warwick University) Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck (Lie detectors) |
| 10:45 – 11:00 | Coffee/Tea break |
| 11:00 – 12:30 | Workshops Identification of democratic challenges and big questions to address related to the three themes (polarisation, populism, and violence; short-termism and sustainability; technology, disinformation, and AI) |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 – 14:15 | Launch talk duos (academia / society) Inequalities and inclusion Kenza Amara-Hammou (UCLouvain) Angela van de Wiel (SAAMO Brussel/Bruxelles vzw) Democratic innovations Vincent Jacquet (Unamur) Jonathan Moskovic (DemNext/OECD) |
| 14:15 – 15:45 | Workshops Identification of democratic challenges and big questions to address related to the two themes (Inequalities and inclusion; Democratic innovations) |
| 15:45 – 16:00 | Coffee/Tea Break |
| 16:00 – 17:00 | Network building and forward thinking exercise: what’s next? |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Conclusion |
| 17:30 | Drink |
Route description
