Academic workshop on privacy at ECPR in Helsinki, May 2007

My ongoing academic interest in questions of the politics and governance of privacy has led me to team up with my colleague Charles Raab of Edinburgh University, one of the leading experts on the subject. Together we have developed the program for a workshop to be held at the next annual meeting of the European Consortium for Political Research (the European level political science association which, however, accepts departments from around the world for membership).

Charles was a pioneer in directing a workshop on the topic at ECPR some 25 years ago, so for him it is a coming back. Next year, our workshop will focus on "Privacy and Information: Modes of Regulation". We are interested in how recent technological developments — that increased personal data massively and made them cheaply storable and transferable — have challenged and altered the political regulation of privacy around the world. Issues such as biometrical passports, the establishment of DNA databases, the use of CCTV cameras in public space, and the use of RFID chips have spawned political debates in many countries as well as theoretical reflection.

We hope to attract good proposals from colleagues around the world who work on the issues of privacy and information policy from either a theoretical or empirical perspective, and we look forward to meeting with them and discussing their and our work in May next year.

You can find the leaflet with the detailed information and workshop abstracts here. If you are interested and have questions, feel free to contact me!

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