Democracy at Risk: EU politics in the 21st century

ended

DEAR is an EU-focused multidisciplinary course that aims to create interest in the democratic condition within the EU. Thus, to constitute the basis for future poles on European knowledge with an interest to analyse periods in modern European politics that put this democratic condition at risk, with regards to national or transnational politics. DEAR focuses on the three following domains of: A. “EU democracy: risks within the political and the economic systems”, B. “EU politics focusing on national and transnational risks” and C. “A digital platform for Democracy @ Risk: why? who? how?”. The module fuses an EU politics perspective with non-EU related studies like as risk management and digital humanities and focuses on showcasing the need for a stable democratic condition in the EU as well as upcoming contemporary risks in the political system and the digital age. It presents a multidisciplinary teaching series on selected issues of political and economic crises and transnational politics affecting democracies in Europe and their assorted risks threatening to deregulate the democratic condition. All three issues were carefully selected to be analysed in the module because they never appear “off the table” of research and teaching. A significant output is the digital platform that emphasizes the social and political impact of democratic procedures on the internet and to what extent they can promote consensus building within the EU public sphere. DEAR is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and researchers or professionals with interests in the module’s theme. It is also suitable for those with an active professional, academic or research interest in mass media communication, risk management, digital humanities or EU studies that emphasize the risks within democracy deriving from specific domains.