The European Digital DemocracY network (EDDY) aims to bring together academics and practitioners actively working on or with digital democracy, to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange. Digital democracy may be defined as the use of information and communication tools (like apps or platforms) to support democratic decision-making and public participation. More broadly, digital democracy refers to the integration of the digital world and democratic societies.
Below is a short description of our vision, what we do, and our history. Read more about EDDY's core values and governance principles on this page. For more information on the people behind EDDY, see this page. For more background and an ambitious outlook on the interdisciplinary science of digital democracy, please refer to this multi-authored white paper.
In recent years, digital democracy has become a subject of academic research and is being put into practice around the world. However, the science and practices of digital democracy are currently still living mostly in separate universes. EDDY aims to further advance the science and practice of digital democracy, by promoting inter- and crossdisciplinary connections and collaborations between scientists from relevant fields as well as practitioners working in the private sector, for ngo's, in public institutions, and elsewhere.
We maintain a mailing list to help communication among EDDY’s members and to alert them of events or achievements related to digital democracy.
We organize conferences and other in-person events on a regular basis, inviting practitioners and theorists both from within and outside the network. (See this page for the more information on past and upcoming in-person events.)
We organize online meet-ups, where practitioners and theorists enter a dialogue on ongoing and future work.
We host an international, cross-disciplinary reading group on digital democracy, where junior scholars discuss recent papers and books as well as their ongoing research. Please get in touch with Nicolien Janssens (janssens@esphil.eur.nl) for more information or in case you want to join this group.
EDDY was founded in October 2022 at the “Algorithmic Technology for Democracy” workshop at the Lorentz Center in Leiden (The Netherlands). The week-long event brought together academics and practitioners from multiple countries and disciplines. We experienced that the exchange between practice and theory was mutually beneficial, but we also realized that there are few occasions or structures for such exchanges. Thus the idea for EDDY was born.