Conference on Democracy & Digital Citizenship
The biannual Democracy & Digital Citizenship Conference took place for the third time at AIAS (Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies), Aarhus University, on 27-28 August. The objective of the conference series is to build and support an inclusive, investigative and interdisciplinary space for developing and addressing the issues raised above. Scholars from the humanities, the social and technical sciences convene in Denmark every other year to exchange knowledge and collectively explore the complex and evolving relationships between digital technology, institutional and everyday political practices, and democracy (source: conference website).
This year’s keynote speakers were Professor Brit Ross Winthereik, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), who presented Knowing digital citizenship: Material analytics and spaces of democracy, and Professor Rob Kitchin from Maynooth University, Ireland, with the keynote Digital authoritarianism and illiberalism, the third wave of autocratization, and (geo)political reordering.
I presented ongoing work on exploring young Danish citizens’ intrinsic democratic and political potentials in the light of derived democratic normativity and self-perceived lack of political insight and agency. The paper, which was presented in an earlier version in 2025, is titled Democratic deliberation starts at the dinner table. Young Danes and relatable political discussions in their ‘safe gardens’.
The first part of the presentation outlined what I mean by political deliberation in “safe gardens”:
The term ‘safe gardens’ (Stald, 2023) is a metaphor that indicates a private space with a homely atmosphere of safety, embracing those with a right to be present, excluding ‘threatening’ visitors. But the safe garden is not closed off – you can walk in and out, talk over the hedge, and listen, without being noticed, to what goes on outside the hedge. You can bring in information that you have compiled in other contexts. ‘Safe gardens’ describes a physical space such as home, the dinner table, get-togethers with friends, school-groups – even a street demonstration. Or it could be a closed group online or the anonymity of ‘liking’. The metaphor describes the reality of being informed and participating citizens for many young Danes.
The discussion following the presentation provided several insightful as well as critical and constructive questions and comments. These have encouraged me to further clarify the definition of the target group and to sharpen my plans for future data collection and analysis.
The conference series is organised by Digital Democracy Centre (DDC), University of Southern Denmark, The Centre for Digital Citizenship (CDC), Roskilde University, SHAPE – Shaping Digital Citizenship, Aarhus University, and Copenhagen Centre for Social Data Science (SODAS), University of Copenhagen.
Having participated in all three conferences so far, I continue to find them highly relevant and inspiring. Each time, however, I find myself wishing that ITU were among the organising partners. Then again, as a small university, ITU cannot be involved in every worthwhile initiative.