Friday, March 15th, 2019 David Peterson Public Leadership Program:Taylor Owen: What’s Behind the Techlash? (and what to do about it)

Description

2018 was the year of the techlash. It was the year that long-simmering concerns about the potential negative effects of technology on our economy, on our personal lives and even on our democracy broke into public debate. But what is behind this reaction? How did Silicon Valley go from a catalyst of innovation that was broadly seen as aligned with economic growth and democratic participation to the source of serious questions about the integrity of our society and democracy? And what should we as citizens and our governments do to respond?

Taylor Owen is the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications and Associate Professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. He was previously Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, and the Research Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. His Doctorate is from the University of Oxford and he has been a Trudeau and Banting scholar, an Action Canada and Public Policy Forum Fellow, the 2016 Public Policy Forum Emerging Leader, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).