Dukakis Center kicks off anniversary season at Reworks Agora

This past weekend the Dukakis Center hosted Victoria Alsina of GovLab (NYU) and the Ash Center (Harvard), who delivered the keynote lecture at the Reworks Agora 2018 conference at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall. The event was co-sponsored with the Thessaloniki U.S. Consulate General.

Dr. Alsina, shared insights from an ongoing project on information technology and citizen engagement, with examples of how blockchain technology is impacting participation, deliberation, and voting at the municipal and national levels worldwide. Dr. Alsina also addressed the question of optimization of quality citizen participation and the current debate over redefining political legitimacy in light of developments in information technology. The session was moderated by Aphrodite Bouikidis, consultant for urban innovation and international partnerships with the Resilience Office of the Municipality of Thessaloniki.

Victoria Alsina is a Democracy Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Research Professor in the Technology, Culture, and Society Department at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, where she directs the Crowdlaw Initiative at the Governance Lab (GovLab). As an international consultant, she has advised numerous governments, private institutions, and non-profit organizations, including the OECD, the European Union, and the Inter-American Development Bank, on issues related to public sector reform, collaborative governance and democratic innovation.

Reworks Agora is an annual conference, which takes place in the margins of the renowned Reworks Music Festival, now in its 14th year. During this one-day and cross-thematic forum, keynote speakers and experts discuss topics as activism, creativity, technology, democracy. The Dukakis Center co-hosted the keynote session in 2017, too, with a lecture by Liz Barry, Director of the urban environment at Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science.

The Dukakis Center is celebrating 20 years of public service initiatives this year, with a full program of lectures, conferences, and workshops.