On 26 and 27 March 2026, PGMT & DCN member Dr. Dennis Redeker (ZeMKI) jointly with Dr. Berenike Prem (InIIS, University of Bremen), in cooperation with the International Relations Section of the German Political Science Association (DVPW), hosted the workshop”International Relations in the Digital Age: Governing – and Being Governed by – Technology” (see Call for Papers here). The event brought together more than 40 scholars from across Europe and beyond to exchange ideas and discuss ongoing research.

Dennis and Berenike were joined by several other DCN members, including Professor Marianne Franklin (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) who concluded the first day with a public keynote lecture reflecting  on the challenges and opportunities associated with governing digital technologies in an evolving global political landscape, elaborating on how competing futures are imagined and developed – both technologically and societally – often with too little attention paid to environmental impacts of the digital transformation. Additionally, DCN members were represented across various panels, presenting on topics such as:

– Rethinking AI policy-making from below (Adio-Adet Dinika, Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR))

– Competing models of AI governance: Neoliberalism, digital sovereignty, digital constitutionalism and
their global implications (Nicola Palladino, University of Salerno)

– The Making of the UN Global Digital Compact: Mapping Advocacy Coalitions (Dennis Redeker, ZeMKI, University of Bremen)

– Research and (un)sustainable archives: The global environmental politics of polycentric internet
governmentality (Marianne Franklin and Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, University of Groningen)

– Corporate sovereignty in the digital age (Mauro Santaniello and Chiara Spiniello, University of Salerno)