Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life
Location:
Moot Court Room
Old College
Date/time
Mon 26 May 2025
15:00-17:00
About this event
In Governable Spaces, Nathan Schneider (Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder) argues that the internet is plagued by "implicit feudalism," where many online communities resemble fiefdoms. This 'feudal default' online atrophies our ability to engage in political democracy offline and conditions users to accept autocratic control by Big Tech CEOs and politicians. This, in turn, undermines the internet's democratic potential. Using media archaeology, political theory, and participant observation, Schneider explores how historical governance practices and models can be used to build more democratic, creative online spaces. At this roundtable, Schneider will present his book, followed by responses from participants and an open discussion with the audience.
About the speaker
Assistant Professor Nathan Schneider (he/him) studies technology, democracy, and religion. His current project is an exploration of models for democratic ownership and governance for online platforms and protocols. He is founder of the Media Economies Design Lab.
Schneider is the author of four books, most recently Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life, published by University of California Press in 2024, and Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy, published by Bold Type Books in 2018. He edited Vitalik Buterin’s book Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains and co-edited Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet. Recent scholarship has been published in New Media & Society, Feminist Media Studies, the Georgetown Law Technology Review, and Media, Culture & Society, among other journals. He has also reported for publications including Harper’s, The Nation, The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and others, along with regular columns for America, a national Catholic magazine. He has lectured at universities including Columbia, Fordham, Harvard, MIT, NYU, the University of Bologna, and Yale. He serves on the boards of the Metagovernance Project, Start.coop, Waging Nonviolence, and Zebras Unite. Follow his work on his website, nathanschneider.info.
This event is funded by SCRIPT Centre.
Image credit: Freepik