This summer, I look forward to going back to Deutschen SchülerAkademie, for me, the mother of all summer schools. 

(Imagefilm von Bildung & Begabung e.V. dem Träger der Akademien seit 1988.)

My friend and colleague Matthias Bröcheler and I are offering a course on “E-Democracy – An Opportunity for Participatory Democracy?”. Together with 16 students, we will look into computer science, sociological, mathematical, political science and statistical perspectives on the essential question of how to organize postindustrial, liberal democracy , “unity in diversity”. At the intersection of our interests and academic disciplines, politics and IT, social and computer science, we look forward to taking our students on a transcdisciplinary adventure. 

“Democracy’s won!” exclaimed Charles Krauthammer on April 3rd, 1989 in the Washington Post, a few months before the collapse of communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe. Is it really “the end of history”, yet? Others are more sceptical. Justice William H. Hastie, first African American on the Supreme Court bench warns us: “Democracy is not being, it is becoming. It is easily lost, but never finally won”.

Most will agree that the concrete design of democratic systems is no easy task, and today faced with new challenges: Can parties and MPs still represent us adequately? What can we do against – or in spite of – political apathy and (rational) ignorance? How can we get more people to partake in democratic decision making?

New technology, on the other side, provides promising opportunities: can thousands of citizens collaboratively draft a law on a wiki? How can we leverage expert knowledge on the internet? Can new technology bring us better, fairer and electronic elections?

These and other questions of democratic decision making will be the subject of our transdisciplinary, problem-oriented quest. Computer science, sociology, mathematics, political science, statistics, behavioral economics, psychology and game theory will all provide important perspectives which we will have to understand, contrast and integrate.

We first revise the historical, theoretical and normative foundations of democratic rule, compare different traditions and understand contrasting patterns and models. We will then gauge empirical data and theoretical arguments about the alleged crisis of (representative) democracy.

To develop solutions to the problems we pose in the course, we will need an understanding of the differences between disciplines, and then, accommodate and integrate what, we expect, will be quite different insights. Computer science, a key discipline for our course, will serve us to visualize and formalize what we think and learn (chiefly through Unified Markup Language, UML).

As a conclusion and highlight of the coursework, students develop perspectives for Political Systems Engineering and suggest ways in which (if any) information technology can change and improve the conditions of democratic decision making. If time permits, some suggestions will be implemented in a small experiment.

(From the 2009 program on the  2.4 course “E-Democracy” at Deutsche Schülerakademie in Brunswick).

CJD Christopherusschule Campus, summer home to two Deutsche SchülerAkademien

Deutsche SchülerAkademie is a summer school program for gifted high school students, sponsored by Education & Talent Inc., financed by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research and the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft together with other supporters. At a total of nine SchülerAkademien, 10th-12th graders work on academic subjects, supported by young scientists, teachers and experts. Aside from coursework (and equally important), Deutsche SchülerAkademie allows for and encourages a variety of cultural, musical, sports, and social activities.

In 2002, I was happy enough to be recommended for participation at Deutsche SchülerAkademie from Gymnasium Syke, my former school. For 16 days, a cultural studies course on TV series, lively discussions, intellectually stimulating atmosphere and glaring lack of sleep made the academy a formative event for me. 

I look forward to giving back something of this great opportunity, of bringing a new academy to life, together with a great team and bring an adventurously transdisciplinary course to our students, whom Matthias and I are eager to meet.

That will be my summer.