Long time horizons challenge standard forms of governance.
Addressing issues like climate change, artificial intelligence (AI), urban planning, income inequality, autocratisation, biodiversity loss, future pandemics, public debt, demographic change, microplastics, and space debris requires anticipating problem trajectories and appropriate governance responses over the long term. Moreover, governments and citizens struggle to engage in future-oriented governance, often discounting future costs and the interests of future generations.
In future studies, initial approaches to addressing such problems were often technocratic and expert-led, but the field has become more dialogical, adaptive, and institutional. This workshop brings together scholars from law, political science, philosophy, data science, sociology, architecture, and public policy to explore critically:
(1) how long problems can be conceptualised and theorised;
(2) what we can learn from studying the governance of selected long problems over their past and future lifespans; and
(3) how a research agenda for the governance of long-term problems can be best advanced.
At the EUI and the Robert Schuman Centre, we are dedicated to removing barriers and providing equal opportunities for everyone. Please indicate your accessibility needs, if any, on the registration form. Alternatively, you can contact the event logistics organiser.
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