Doctoral Research Fellowship Linked to the project “The Democracy of Silence”

Norway University of Oslo

The Democracy of Silence investigates silence as an integral dimension of democratic culture, challenging the assumption that participation must always be vocal or visible. The project explores how silence shapes democratic life, citizenship, and participation in both digital and offline contexts. We ask, how can we reimagine the democratic potentials of silence in a society that hinges on vocal ideals of citizenship? And, what kind of politics emerges when we embrace silence as a democratic value, rather than view it as a threat?

Our research group is interdisciplinary, bringing together expertise from media and communication, informatics, participatory design, musicology, cultural theory, theology, and beyond. As such, the project is inspired by and seeks to advance discussions in democratic theory (Habermas, 1996; Dahl, 1998), political philosophy ...