Digital Technology and Democratic Theory

One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over—and upending—nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship have all been modified by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms. __Digital Technology and Democratic Theory__ looks closely at one significant facet of our rapidly evolving digital lives: how technology is radically changing our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments. To understand these transformations, this book brings together contributions by scholars from multiple disciplines to wrestle with the question of how digital technologies shape, reshape, and affect fundamental questions about democracy and democratic theory. As expectations have whiplashed—from Twitter optimism in the wake of the Arab Spring to Facebook pessimism in the wake of the 2016 US election—the time is ripe for a more sober and long-term assessment. How should we take stock of digital technologies and their promise and peril for reshaping democratic societies and institutions? To answer, this volume broaches the most pressing technological changes and issues facing democracy as a philosophy and an institution. "One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over-and upending-nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship-all transformed by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms. Digital Technology and Democratic Theory explores a particularly unsettling and rapidly evolving facet of our new digital lives: transformations that affect our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments. To understand these transformations, scholars from multiple disciplines (computer science, philosophy, political science, economics, history, and media and communications/journalism) wrestle with the question of how digital technologies shape, reshape, and affect fundamental questions about democracy and democratic theory. The contributors consider what democratic theory-broadly defined as normative theorizing about the values and institutional design of democracy-can bring to the practice of digital technologies. From the connectivity and transmission of information that has inspired positive change through movements such as the Arab Spring and #MeToo to the nefarious spread of distrust and outright disruption in democratic processes, this volume broaches the most pressing technological changes and issues facing not just individual states, but democracy as a philosophy and institution"-- Provided by publisher Democracy and the digital public sphere /Joshua Cohen and Archon Fung --Open democracy and digital t echnologies /Hélène Landemore --Purpose-Built digital associations /Lucy Bernholz --Digital exclusion: a politics of refusal /Seeta Peña Gangadharan --Presence of absence: exploring the democratic significance of silence /Mike Ananny --The artisan and the decision factory: the organizational dynamics of private speech governance /Robyn Caplan --The democratic consequences of the new public sphere /Henry Farrell and Melissa Schwartzberg --Democratic societal collaboration in a whitewater world /David Lee, Margaret Levi, and John Seely Brown --From philanthropy to democracy: rethinking governance and funding of high-quality news in the digital age /Julia Cagé --Technologizing democracy or democratizing technology? A layered-architecture perspective on potentials and challenges /Bryan Ford One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over - and upending - nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship have all been modified by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms. This title looks closely at one significant facet of our rapidly evolving digital lives: how technology is radically changing our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments. To understand these transformations, this book brings together contributions by scholars from multiple disciplines to wrestle with the question of how digital technologies shape, reshape, and affect fundamental questions about democracy and democratic theory Edited By Lucy Bernholz, Hélène Landemore, And Rob Reich. Electronic Reproduction. Berlin Available Via World Wide Web.