The topic is highly relevant in a year that has been defined as “the electoral year”, where almost half of the world’s population are voting in national elections that could reshape global politics.
In this 1st Open Forum Zsolt Boda, Research Professor of the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, will give his vision to the question “Is Democracy at stake?”. The current context is worrying not only pro-democracy watchdogs who estimate that nearly three-quarters of the world's population live in autocracies, but also many people across the globe. However, controversially, many citizens are voting for polarising politicians.
Joerg Friedrichs, Associated Professor at the University of Oxford, will focus his intervention on the political use of emotions, specially fear and anger used by some populist governments. We will hear also from Mette Wiggen, lecturer at the University of Leeds about the challenges to democracies and from Mathew Williams, Chief Scientific Adviser for the Scottish Government.
In opaque contexts of misinformation and manipulation, science and the public's perception of it may also be affected. In this panel Justin Sulik, a cognitive scientist and senior researcher at the Munich Interactive Intelligence Initiative (MI3), Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, will delve into the diverse perspectives on distrust in science. Sicco de Knecht Director of the National Centre of Expertise on Science and Society in the Netherlands (NEWS) will give his perspective on how good science communication can act as a catalyst and stimulate the trust in science. We will also hear from Susanne Caarls, from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands about the values ofscience in a democratic society and the importance of maintaining an international perspective.
This 1st Open Forum will be opened by Julie Fitzpatrick, Chief Scientific Advisor for the Government of Scotland from where she champions the use of science to inform policy development.
Nathalie Van Meurs, CONNECTS-UK and Co-founder and Co-director DNA UK (Dutch Network of Academics in the UK) will contribute from a cross cultural management perspective and why cultural values drive people’s interpretation of trust and sense of justice.
CONNECTS-UK is excited to partner with the University of Edinburgh represented by the co-chairs Carlos Soler Montes, (Vice-President of the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK) and Jenny Watson, Department of European languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh.
This event is very much aligned with the work carried out by the European Union with the flagship programme EUvsDesinfo aimed at identifying, analysing and raising awareness about disinformation in its multiple shapes and forms.
