The political public is online. With interactive information and decentralized communication the hold of political elites is being challenged, in democracies as well as dictatorships. But experiences from the countries that are world leading in internet connectivity; are unfortunately not only positive. One has seen a strengthening of the populist right wing in the Nordic countries, Holland and the USA, and now this horrible terrorist act performed by a Norwegian activist from the “dark web” of the “counterjihad”. What are the upsides and downsides, promises and dangers involved in the ongoing shift of democracy to digital platforms?

Registration by December 2: lena.kainz@student.hu-berlin.de

PROGRAMME

Session 1

09:15: Opening by Anne-Kirsti Wedel Karlsen, The Norwegian Embassy.

09:30: Peter R. Neumann, Director of The International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence, Kings College London:
“Extremism on the net and how to combat it”

10:15: Joseba Zulaika, Professor at the Center for Basque studies, University of Nevada:
“How counter-terrorism furthered terrorism”

Chair: Kjetil A. Jakobsen, Henrik Steffens-Professor, Department for Northern European Studies, Humboldt-University, Berlin

11:00: Coffee

Session 2

11:15: Jostein Gripsrud, Professor, Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen:
“Terrorism, cyberbalkanization and the history of campsite public spheres”

12:00: Hartmut Wessler, Professor for Media and Communication Studies, University of Mannheim:
“A digital public sphere? Some critical reflections on political functions and dysfunctions of the Internet”

Chair: Bernd Henningsen, Professor Emeritus, Department for Northern European Studies , Humboldt University, Berlin

12:45: Lunch

Session 3

14:00: Kjetil A. Jakobsen, Henrik Steffens-Professor, Humboldt University, Berlin:
“From Robespierre to the Counterjihad. Communicating terror in three media regimes; Gutenberg, analogue and digital”

14:45: Torkel Brekke. Professor of History of Religion, University of Oslo:
“Freedom of speech-absolutism in Scandinavia. Some critical reflections”

Chair: Stefanie von Schnurbein, Department for Northern European Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin:

15:30: Coffee

Session 4

15:45-17:30: Plenary debate “Democracy, violence and the new media”

Opening statements by Lars Gule and by Iver Ørstavik, two Norwegian political philosophers and public intellectuals who joined Islamophobic discussion sites in order to keep extremists from isolating themselves. Gule’s and Ørstavik’s reflections on their discussions with Behring Breivik and other internet extremists will be followed by a general debate involving the keynotes, the chairs and the audience.

Scientific coordinator: Kjetil A. Jakobsen and Jostein Gripsrud