What are epistemic rights and why do we need them? DECA’s researchers discussing the theme in the new podcast series.

DECA's new podcast series is based on a roundtable conversation between Lani Watson of Oxford University, the author of The Right To Know: Epistemic rights and why we need them (2021), and Minna Horowitz, Katja Lehtisaari, Hannu Nieminen of DECA, and Alessandro D'Arma of the University of Westminster. They discuss why epistemic rights are fundamental to our digital age, which institutions are central to their realization, and what issues need to be made more prominent in considering epistemic rights in academia and beyond.

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The podcast series is closely related to a forthcoming book Epistemic Rights in the Era of Digital Disruption (Palgrave) that will be published later this year. The book argues that in a functioning democracy, citizens should be equally capable of making informed choices about matters of social importance. In today's complex era of digital disruption, it is argued that it is not enough to speak about communication rights or even digital rights. We need a more comprehensive term to grasp the multifaceted challenges of the current situation to citizens, organizations, and democratic structures as a whole. The starting point for this volume is the need for 'epistemic equality.'

The volume, created in collaboration with several research efforts including DECA, is open-access, available later in 2023.

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