June 10th 2026 | Deep Dive Session
Hosted by DEMGES (Democracy in Digital Societies), Austrian Academy of Sciences (Austria)
Leads: Dr. Astrid Mager, Austrian Academy of Sciences (Austria); Dr. Mirko Tobias Schäfer, Utrecht University, Data School
Convening leads: Rana Kuseyri, Responsible AI Researcher at the Inclusive AI Lab; Samuel Briones Barrales, PhD in Care+ AI UU; Constanze Kerres, Research and Teaching Associate at Vienna University of Economics and Business.
This workshop invites AI ethicists, legal and governance scholars, policymakers, political activists and related stakeholders to examine how democratic, context-sensitive approaches to AI governance can be translated into concrete practice. Building on earlier work on situated ethics (Mager et al. 2025), which challenges the universality of AI ethics principles largely drafted in the Global North, we focus on how ethical frameworks can be grounded in the lived experiences and sociotechnical realities of diverse communities. We will explore how globally circulating ethics principles might be opened up and diversified, how bottom-up and locally rooted approaches can be strengthened, and how human rights and international law can serve as essential guardrails in preventing discriminatory or harmful practices. The workshop asks how AI ethics can foster more democratic modes of AI development and governance at a time of expanding technological power and growing authoritarianism.
Goal: Co-create hopeful, situated, cultural-driven AI ethical futures through collective visioning, contextual engagement, and equitable design principles.
Provocateurs:
Prof. Hendrik Wagenaar, Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of Contemporary Solidarity, University of Vienna (Austria)
Anant Mani, Founder and CEO of Report Bee, a platform for measuring and improving education; RandomWalk AI (India)
Carine Roos, Researcher at the University of Sheffield, previously the Founder & CEO of Newa, a social impact consultancy (Brazil)
Monique Steijns, Founder of The People’s AI GENCY strategic legal, policy and leadership advice in technology (NL)
Prof. Mara A. Yerkes, Professor of Comparative Social Policy, Utrecht University and Research Associate at the Center for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg
Prof. Pinar Yolum, Professor and Chair of Trustworthy AI,Utrecht University (NL)