RELAY Workshop: A digital Europe that benefits all
Data-driven technologies are changing nearly every aspect of our lives, from how we work, learn, eat, sleep, vote, listen to music, watch films and TV, choose partners, communicate with friends and family, get the news. It’s hard to think of a single facet of contemporary life that is not being changed by big data analytics, machine-learning, algorithmic decision-making, and support systems. Whether we like it or not, these changes are also bringing about visible social, economic, and political transformations. It may not be a stretch to say that these technologies have the possibility to alter not just how we behave, but how we understand ourselves and the social world around us, in ways that may not be concordant with fundamental European Union values. The question of whether Europe is fit for a digital age is not just a question concerning Europe’s technological readiness level, but also her societal readiness level.
In this online workshop organised by the Brightlands Institute for Smart Society, we explored two topics of fundamental importance for Europe's digital age. In the first session, we discussed democratising and governing an increasingly digital Europe that often moves at a much faster speed than its institutions.
The second session was dedicated to the future of work - from what and where to how and how much - a topic that is gaining salience as we come out of the pandemic and return (or not) to our offices and routines.
This online workshop was organised in the framework of the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet RELAY project coordinated by Campus Brussels. RELAY is a project that aims at discussing the European Commission’s political guidelines and work programme with a wide and diverse array of stakeholders. For more information, please visit the RELAY webpage.