Conference: Democratic Technology? Technical Democracy?

Technological developments permeate all areas of social life. Time and again, they challenge the limits of democratic structures, values, and processes – while, at the same time, opening up new possibilities for participation, transparency, and collective decision-making. The relationship between democracy and technology is a reciprocal one: Technologies influence political decision-making, forms of participation, and the public sphere, while democratic norms and institutions shape the development, regulation, and use of technological systems.

At present, these questions are discussed primarily with regard to the consequences of the increasing use of digital technologies – particularly in relation to social media and algorithmic decision-making processes. How are democratic debates and decisions transformed when they are fueled by likes, memes, and deep fakes? And what might a form of liquid democracy look like? The conference seeks to engage with these pressing contemporary issues while, at the same, time broadening the perspective: It aims to inquire more fundamentally into the relationship between technological conditions and democratic processes.

Even Athenian democracy was shaped by specific architectural structures and a codified use of writing. Members of the highest court were selected by means of a lottery machine, and speaking time was regulated by water clocks. Modern democracies likewise rely on calculations of seat distribution, mechanisms for casting and counting votes – and thus on corresponding rules and authorities – on statistical surveys, and on official declarations. Parliamentary architecture continues to play a role, but so do party discipline and organizational constraints, which themselves often submit to technical imperatives. Procedures of participation, on the one hand, and cultures of expertise, on the other, call into question the ideal image of representative democracy – a development intensified today by the increasing shift of decision-making processes into models (modeling for policy).

At present, the democratization of technological development is being programmatically pursued under the banner of open science and innovation, while warnings are voiced against the looming disempowerment of democratic self-understanding through artificial intelligence. Against this backdrop, the Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie, in cooperation with the journal Technikgeschichte, seeks to explore the less illuminated dimensions of the interplay between technology and democracy. In light of Eisenhower’s 1961 warning about the democracy-threatening potential of the military-industrial complex, the question continues to arise whether certain technologies might be inherently more open to democratic forms than others.

Various contributions that engage with the technicity of democratic processes will be presented and discussed at our international conference from 16-18 September 2026 at the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS), University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Stefan Böschen (RWTH Aachen University), Daniela Zetti (ETH Zurich), Nadja Mazouz (ETH Zurich), Marcus Düwell (TU Darmstadt), and Ortwin Renn (RIFS Potsdam).

The conference fee of 100€ is to be paid during the registration process. Please register here: https://regi.hlrs.de/2026/TG/.

Limited grants covering the conference for junior scholars are available through TU Darmstadt. Please contact lisa.schwarz(at)stud.tu-darmstadt.de to request a grant.

We organize a three-day on-site event in Stuttgart, featuring talks, breaks, lunch, and dinner, providing an open platform for discussions.

- Program and further information to be published –