Today, at around 8, my friend and colleague Matthias and I are welcoming our students to our class in “E-Democracy – Opportunities for Participatory Democracy?“.
We look forward to learning (and so much more …) with them for the next two and a half months, here at Deutsche SchülerAkademie in Brunswick. For me, it’s the mother of all summer schools.
Here’s the teaser with which we’re beginning our teaching tonight.
Learn more about our course here.
A little preview for our presentation on June 23rd: Here comes the Eurolektionen Teaser!
Register today at www.amiando.com/Eurolektionen or Facebook!
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.
Update
Yesterday (12/06/2010), a group of leftist protesters attacked police with an IED (not “just” fireworks, it appears). Two injured officers had to undergo surgery.
Here’s my wish to the radical left, and everyone else: can we have a demonstration condemning this brutal and senseless violence, please? You can count me in. I’ve had it with the acquiescence and even jovial affirmation of anti-police violence. No one ever is a pig, and certainly not someone in uniform, doing this very hard and thankless job for all of us.
Here’s why I think we should be grateful to them.
I was recently tasked to prepare a presentation on the political economy questions of climate change: How expensive is saving the climate? And who should shoulder the costs?
As I prepared the presentation for Dr. Mildner’s “States & Markets” seminar, it occurred to me that to answer these questions, we first have to understand the risks and uncertainties of climate change. The real questions, I thought were then different ones:
The more I learned about current risk modeling of the climatic and economic impacts of global warming, the more worried I became. I realized, that climate change (as, incidentally, lessons learned from the financial crisis), requires us to rethink how we manage systemic, interdependent, asymmetric and extreme risks as well as uncertainty.
“Act Now!”
I agree, we need to act now, and we need to ask strongly.
Yes, this video simplifies. Yes, it dramatizes. And Yes, it scares us.
And it should. For when everything is at stake, alarmism is not irrational, it becomes a moral imperative and different risk management is necessary.
Continue reading
Panelists discussing the financial crisis. Photo credit: Hertie School of Governance
How to alleviate the effects of the financial crisis? And how to prevent it in the future?
These questions are frequently debated and today were the subject of a high profile panel discussion on “The State and the Financial Crisis“, hosted at the Hertie School of Governnment, Berlin. Prof. Dr. Axel Weber, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank and member of the Governing Board of the European Central Bank started the event with a keynote looking into the dynamics, causes and future remedies of the financial and economic crisis. A high-ranking panel of experts from government, business and academia then discussed implications and solutions.
After a thoughtful debate on regulatory reform, I cannot help but wonder: Is that enough state for a discussion themed “The State and the Financial Crisis”?
Spiegel Online on Winnenden School Shooting
Today, 17 year-old Tim K., armed with a Baretta, shot and killed fifteen people in and around his former Albertville high school in Winnenden, Germany. He eventually shot himself in a gunfight with police.
The media hype and political debate that ensues now, is missing the most dramatic aspect of this tragedy, I think: No one is born wanting to do this.
