Team WP 2.1 - Democracy - Technological Transformation - Society (DeTS)
The project focuses on investigating the discourse produced by both human and artificial intelligence (AI) within the context of liberal democracy (LD) experiencing internal turbulence and being subject to the dynamics of external conditions (in the international context).
DeTS encompasses three planes of analysis defined as research fields with common areas:
LD - or more specifically, its crisis (the causes of the crisis - the observed effects and emerging trends that may affect the near future, as well as proposals of solutions to counter erosive, anti-democratic processes, such as the rise of populism, the growing strength of extreme groups, the radicalisation of attitudes and opinions)
language - modification of the meanings of basic concepts - linguistic engineering as a strategy for formatting social, cultural, and political reality
AI - its use in the process of strengthening/weakening democracy
The aim of the project is to analyse the relationship between contemporary LD, the language used by politicians and intellectuals to legitimise LD, and artificial intelligence as a potential tool of political power.
DeTS aims to investigate how the post-modern/late modern reality is conceptualized through language, political discourse, and socio-cultural narratives on civil society. Also, how the posthumanist and transhumanist reality, where AI plays a significant role, impacts individuals’ political attitudes and decision-making.
The international and interdisciplinary research team, including NGOs, will examine four EU countries Poland, Finland, Italy, and Spain due to their pivotal role in the latest EU politics (parliamentary elections and the change in power, NATO extension, migration crisis).
The main objectives are: 1) to identify emerging trends in the relationship between democracy and AI, 2) how it may affect the future of liberal democracy by increasing the incorporation of AI into the political field, and 3) other fields relevant to civic engagement.
Monika Banaś, professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Faculty of International and Political Studies. Her research interests focus on culture and politics, their interconnections, and the processes generated by the interaction of these two phenomena. She is the author of numerous papers and works resulting from research projects, including, among others, Protest in Late Modern Societies: Dynamics, Forms, Futures (co-editor R. Saduov) (Routledge, 2023), Integration Policy as a Challenge for European Cohesion in Politické Vedy (2022), Swedish Migrant Integration Policy after 2015: A Revised Approach in the Shadow of the Migration Crisis in Fuori Luogo (2021), and The Cultural Potential of Femipolitics on the Example of Ireland at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries (published in Polish) in Women in Politics (2020). She is the editor-in-chief of the bilingual semiannual journal “Relacje Międzykulturowe - Intercultural Relations.”
Dr. Mirela Marta Banach is a historian and political scientist, currently serving as a research assistant at the Institute of European Studies at Jagiellonian University. She earned her doctoral degree from La Sapienza University in Rome and Jagiellonian University. Her research interests focus on the political history of Poland and Italy, their mutual relations, the history of international relations, and transnational opposition and democratic movements. She is the author of publications on constitutional history, historiography, and political processes from a comparative perspective. Dr. Banach is a member of CIRCgE (UNINT) and the Polish group of the Institute of Italian Risorgimento History. She has teaching experience gained at LUMSA, Teramo, and UNINT universities, as well as research experience developed through archival inquiries in European archives. Her scholarly activities include interdisciplinary research projects supporting international academic cooperation, with a particular emphasis on Polish-Italian relations and the challenges of contemporary democracy in Europe.
Małgorzata Kiwior-Filo, doctor of social sciences with habilitation, university professor at Jagiellonian University, lecturer at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations. She specializes in the evolution of political doctrines, with a particular focus on the Italian context. Her research concentrates on political thought, especially Italian liberals in relation to fascism, contemporary legal-political doctrines, non-democratic systems of power, issues related to state security, and socio-political changes in contemporary Europe.
Jakub Polit, professor of Humanities, historian, works in the Department of Contemporary General History at Jagiellonian University. His research interests concern the history of the 20th century. Author of thirteen books, including: Retreat from the Pacific? Great Britain and the Far East, 1914-1922 (Kraków 1999), China (series: History of the World’s States in the 20th Century, Warsaw 2000), The Lion and the Dragon. Great Britain and the Chinese Crisis 1925-1928 (Kraków 2006), Against the Wind. Chiang Kai-shek 1887-1975 (Kraków 2008), Bitter Triumph. The Sino-Japanese War 1937-1949 (Kraków 2013); Japanese Foreign Policy 1895-1945 (Kraków 2015 and 2020); Hirohito. The Mystery of Emperor Shōwa (Kraków 2019 and 2021; Jagiellonian University award for scientific activity); Foreign Policy of the Republic of China 1911-1949 (Kraków 2023; Jagiellonian University award 2024). Co-author of History of Poland (Kraków 2005). He is currently working on a biography of General Douglas MacArthur.
Dariusz Juruś is a professor at Jagiellonian University, and a graduate of philosophy (Jagiellonian University) and architecture (Cracow University of Technology). A scholarship holder at universities in Bochum, Heidelberg, Oxford, and Liechtenstein. He specializes in political philosophy (mainly libertarianism) and ethics. His scientific interests also include aesthetic issues. He is the author of several dozen publications, including monographs such as “In Search of the Foundations of Libertarianism” and “Philosophical Concepts of Property: From Plato to Marx.” He works at the Institute of Intercultural Studies, Faculty of International and Political Studies at Jagiellonian University.
