The University of Graz invites Arqus students to participate in “Data, democracy & the new social fabric” Summer School
University of Graz
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27 Mar 2025
The University of Graz calls for participants for the “Data, democracy & the new social fabric” Summer School on 15-26 September 2025. This two-week programme will bring together doctoral researchers and postdocs from diverse fields to explore the intersection of data science, political philosophy, and social media research.
The Arqus AI& Digital Transformation Living Lab will organise a Thematic Day within the Summer School, focusing on the impact of social media on democracy and society at large. They will explore critical factors such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, and their influence on society and democracy. There will be a hybrid session, extending the Thematic Day’s impact and enabling participation from both the public and students/speakers affiliated with Arqus universities.
To enhance inclusivity, the Arqus AI&DT Living Lab is offering two student scholarships (€2000 each), prioritizing first-generation students and students from third-world countries. These scholarships will be awarded to students from Arqus universities. Among equally qualified candidates, preference will be given to women.
About the summer school
The “Data, democracy & the new social fabric” summer school will examine the growing divergence between democratic systems and the social fabric reshaped by technologies like social media. Participants will explore the nature of this tension and the types of solutions that it may demand.
Blending political philosophy and computational data science, the programme starts from the conceptual foundations of democracy and builds up to contemporary discussions on the interactions between social media and democracy, the ethical role of science and scientists in the digital age, and new ideas for the future of governance and social media.
The summer school will be hosted by the Complex Social & Computational Systems Lab at the University of Graz (Austria) on 15-26 September 2025.
The application deadline is 13 April 2025.
Audience:
This programme is designed for Master’s, Doctoral students, and Postdocs in computational social science, computer science, data science, maths, or related fields. Students from a social science background with basic programming skills (Python/R) are also encouraged to apply.
Summer school themes:
- Philosophical foundations of democracy and social networks
- Impact of social media on democracy and society at large
- The ethics of science using large-scale social data sets
- Epistemically sound use of social media data and models
- The future of democracy and the internet
Participation fee:
There is no fee for the summer school but travel and accommodation are not covered. Limited number of grants available.
For further details, check the Summer School website and reach out to ddnsf@uni-graz.at.
