When Form 8815 Participating 2022-2023

Good afternoon Hasselt, it's really nice to be here. It's absolutely wonderful to see so many people gathered to talk about such objects. I've hugely enjoyed the morning talks, although I haven't entirely agreed with them, as you will see when you hear my presentation. It's great to come to these things with your mind open, but maybe not your mind hanging open like a mouse, ready to grab anything that flies by. So, I encourage you today to think for yourself when you hear all the talks and when you think about which ones had synergies with others and which ones contradicted some of the ones you've heard. I'm going to start with a tiny bit of homework for you to do here. Just turn to the person next to you and tell them in one minute what you think democracy means to you. Now, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I've been a teacher, researcher, and educator with young people for the last 21 years. It's a very exciting profession and something I absolutely love doing. Now, I teach a Master's at the London School of Economics, which is a great place to work. One of the privileges of working there is having discussions about issues like democracy and new media with some of the greatest and most innovative students from around the world. However, my projects over the last seven years have taken me to various different places where new media isn't as prevalent as it is in Europe and North America. This has given me a different insight into the claims we hear on a daily basis about new media. But let's take a step back and talk for a minute about what inspires me to think about new media and democracy in the same sentence....