11/01/2024

Call for abstracts and panel proposals for international conference

‘Public Governance and Emerging Technologies: Values, Trust, and Compliance by Design’ (11-12 January 2024, Utrecht)

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to our interdisciplinary international conference on ‘Public Governance and Emerging Technologies: Values, Trust, and Compliance by Design’ on 11-12 January 2024, in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The conference will take place in Paushuize, a beautiful historical building in the heart of Utrecht. On Thursday 11 January, the conference will kick-off in the afternoon with a first keynote and networking reception. On Friday 12 January, panel discussions and a second keynote will take place, including lunch and closing reception.

The conference is organized as a part of the CHAIN project ‘The Role and Responsibilities of Public Actors in Distributed Networks. Transparency, Trust and Legitimacy by Design’, a research project funded by the NWO MVI program ‘Responsible Innovation: Designing for Public Values in a Digital World’. This interdisciplinary project is led by Prof. Jurgen Goossens (Utrecht University, Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice, and focus area Governing the Digital Society) and co-led by Prof. Esther Keymolen (Tilburg University/TILT). The project focuses on public governance networks and emerging technologies, with special focus on blockchain. The project aims to rethink and operationalize public values of the democratic rule of law, such as transparency, accountability, trust and legitimacy from a by design perspective and citizen perspective.

The conference aims to combine expertise from multiple disciplines, such as law, sociology, philosophy, STS, public governance, and computer science, to facilitate discussions and further knowledge about emerging technologies, public values, trust, and compliance by design in public governance. Please find a short description of the conference topic below, and click here for the long description.

Call for individual paper abstracts and panel proposals

We invite individual paper and panel proposals in the fields of law, sociology, philosophy, STS, public governance and computer science on emerging technologies, public values, legal compliance and trust in public governance.

The deadline for paper abstracts and panel proposals is 15 October 2023. Please submit your contribution to j.m.ermers@uu.nl.

Acceptance of participation will be communicated on a rolling basis: early submission means early decision. After acceptance, draft papers are to be submitted the latest by 4 January 2024 and will be distributed among the participants of your panel.

Individual paper abstract: up to 500 words

Panel proposal: justification for the panel up to 300 words, containing a discussion of the relevance to the topic of the conference. The proposal should also include 3 to 4 contributors and abstracts (up to 500 words each). The composition of panels will be selected by the conference organization team. If a panel proposal contains fewer than four contributions, the conference organization team may allocate additional papers from selected submissions.

We look forward to your submission and to welcoming you in Utrecht! If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact us at j.m.ermers@uu.nl.