SDF

Elections are the most important mechanism for processing whatever conflicts that may arise in a society. They allow conflicts to be processed in liberty and peace if the electoral defeat is not too painful for the losers and if the losers can expect to win in some not too distant future. This mechanism works well in societies that are economically developed and in which alternation in office through elections has become routine. But democracy is fragile, subject to dangers arising from populism and from polarization.

What must change in politics and in our political institutions for democracy to become a foundational principle in our everyday lives? We explore the SDF Research Team’s incisive analysis on this topic and hear what members of the National Assembly have to say to demands of the Korean public.

Why do we need to rewrite democracy? What would such rewriting entail? In this session, a leading cognitive psychologist shares his thesis on how societies only change when people engage in willing and repeated analysis and reflection. He uses his powers of analysis to probe the minds of politicians, shedding light on their guiding motivation - the desire for power - as well as the ways society kindles this desire. Is there a clear way to know whether a politician is simply in it for the power? Our speaker shares his insights on how to tell the difference.

In Copenhagen, Denmark, there is a library with a unique selection of books. What makes it unique? It’s a Human Library. Each book is a person: someone in your community you’ve never spoken to, or someone you would have few chances to meet, whom you would thus be more inclined to form prejudices about. Recently, over 100 different companies have applied the Human Library approach to managing their businesses. What is the story behind the Human Library, and what has been the impact on the individuals participating, as well as on broader society? In this session, we hear from the man who started the Human Library over two decades ago. In this session, we will hear from the man who started the Human Library over two decades ago and learn how we can unjudge someone.

Democracy is said to be in crisis. But what’s actually a crisis, and what is merely a matter of policy challenges, which might be very serious, but do not threaten democracy as such? I want us to turn back to the basics, or first principles, of democracy better to assess our current moment; I also urge audiences to repair what I call the critical infrastructure of democracy, pluralistic parties and professional news organizations in particular.

Representative democracy, at least in the oversimplified form in which it exists today, can produce both political polarization as well as marginalization of weaker groups. What would happen if we were to go beyond acting on our political inclinations once every four to five years? What if we expressed our opinions on a daily basis, and those opinions were visualized through big data, and thereafter used as data points in day-to-day decision making? In this session, we learn about such data-based democracy, where the diverse thoughts of diverse people can be seen in real time, and about oxopolitics, the political data platform that has turned this possibility into reality.

The world is living through a democracy recession that has spread to countries once seen as inoculated against the threat of authoritarianism. There are many symptoms of this, including government corruption and weakening of fair elections, but one of the most dramatic is the attack on the free press as a fundamental pillar of a healthy democracy. Some media have contributed to a decline in trust by diluting the quality of their journalism and taking a partisan approach to reporting the news. But they now confront increasing violence, imprisonment, economic intimidation, and cyber campaigns spreading propaganda about journalists, all part of a bulging toolbox used to undermine the media. In some countries, the attacks come from the highest political ranks, where “press freedom predators,” as Reporters Without Borders has named them, now sit at the top of a lengthening list of governments. But the victim here is not just journalism―it’s democracy itself.

Are we happy with where our society is headed? Korean society in 2022 is becoming an increasingly anxious society, marked by hatred, isolation, conflict, and animosity. In this session, we pause to reflect on our attitudes toward other people and the kind of society we hope to create together. The author of and , who has made careful examination through her novels of the affective changes shaping individuals in our society, explores the topic of books, our oldest form of media, and the question of how we can reawaken our sense of community.

Warnings are sounding around the world about the growing crisis of loneliness. In this session, a leading political economist cautions against dismissing loneliness as merely an emotional state. Going beyond impacting individuals, the current epidemic of loneliness and isolation is driving marginalization and exclusion within our societies, even giving rise to polarization and political extremism. Our speaker diagnoses the problem of how loneliness is making us targets for political populism and threatening our democracies and explores potential solutions.

Humans create spaces and cities out of desire and necessity. These spaces and cities, in turn, shape the thinking and lifestyles of those who inhabit them. As Winston Churchill famously said, “We shape buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Why have spaces and cities been created in this way, and how, through our choices, can we transform them? How can we create spaces that make us into more democratic citizens? In this session, an architect shares his reflections on cities, spaces, and the ways they speak.

The emergence of citizens who can collectively uphold democracy is not automatic but rather the outcome of education that strengthens civic attitudes. Today, lifelong civic education to foster a healthy civic culture has become especially important. With universities, civic society, and political parties failing to do their part in promoting civic education, what can be done to strengthen our self-efficacy in civic participation as well as our capacity to engage effectively in civic processes? Civic education - and more broadly, civic culture - must be established on the basis of consensus on the minimum criteria for such education, unconstrained by ideological bias or the current anti-intellectual climate. We should refer to the example of German civic education, built on the principles of non-partisanship, clarification of the issues, and capacity-building of the learner, to outline and put into practice programs of civic education that are suitable for modern lifelong learning needs.

The only way to understand what it is to be human is to know what it is like to be not human. Come on a journey with me from the forests of the Congo Basin to the steppes of Siberia to explore the minds of our closest relatives; bonobos and chimpanzees, and dogs - our closest friend. Find out how the secret inner lives of these animals helps us understand what makes us unique, and how our minds came to be. We will arrive at the conclusion that it was friendliness that powerfully shaped the bodies and minds of the animals we meet along the way. This conclusion also leads to the realization that our species also evolved for friendliness. Comparing our friendly nature to other animals then solves the paradox of human kindness and cruelty and makes clearer than ever why institutions are critical to our future success. You will never look at your dog or democracy the same way again.