“Digital Governance: Explorations, Practices, and Criticisms”
Conference date: October 14-15, 2022
The Institute of Political Science of National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) is accepting paper submissions for the 2022 E-Society Summit, to be held at NSYSU College of Social Sciences on October 14-15, 2022. It is a hybrid conference of online and in-person presentations. The theme of this year’s E-society Summit is "Digital Governance: Explorations, Practices, and Criticisms." A growing number of governments, international organizations, and civil society entities believe that digital governance is a solution to public policy issues, and the global epidemic of COVID-19 has further motivated countries to implement various digital governance measures so as to prevent the spread of the disease. Advocates of digital governance, however, believe that it is not only devised to boost government effeciency, but also to facilitate a more open, transparent, and responsive government. In other words, the goal of digital governance is to create a citizen-centric and socially accountable public governance system by leveraging innovative technologies (such as high-speed Internet, Big Data, artificial intelligence, etc.). Nevertheless, the role of digital governance varies in different political systems, and even two countries of the same regime type can develop various digital governance measures due to different political trajectories or developmental paths. Furthermore, the application of innovative technologies in public governance may also generate new risks and social costs. For example, technologies adopted by law enforcement to thwart mis/disinformation online may excessively limit citizens' freedom of expression, while digital footprint tracing technologies created to contain the COVID-19 outbreak may also violate citizens' privacy and their rights of movement. Digital governance measures can promote transparency and democracy, but they may also do damage to citizens’ welfare and result in abuses of government power. The 2022 E-Society Summit will critically examine the benefits and risks of digital governance.
The Summit welcomes paper submissions that explore the following digital governance topics:
Digital governance in the time of COVID
Digital governance and democratic challenges/consolidation
Social media and digital governance
Digital governance, human rights, and development
Digital policies of authoritarian governments
The main language of the Summit is English.
Paper proposal submission site: cutt.ly/NOEVG76.
Submission deadline: May 13, 2022.
Papers presented at the Summit will have the opportunity to be published in Innovation in the Social Sciences, an open-access journal published by Brill Publishing. Please indicate your interest in the journal publication project when submitting the paper proposal.
Contact: Dr. Titus C. Chen at chentitus@g-mail.nsysu.edu.tw.