Blog

What happens after people have shared their views? For EchoPolis, this question belongs at the beginning of every participation process. Our approach brings together three ambitions: Agency, Advocacy and Accountability — AAA.
Was passiert, nachdem Menschen ihre Meinung eingebracht haben? Für EchoPolis gehört diese Frage an den Anfang jedes Beteiligungsprozesses. Unser Ansatz verbindet drei Ansprüche: Agency, Advocacy und Accountability – kurz AAA.

Two intense days at Vienna City Hall in October – and exactly the kind of European gathering we need more of: people from politics, institutions, #civictech, media and campaigning coming together not simply to talk about communication, but to rethink how democracy communicates, listens and builds trust. 

“Germany needs a CSU for the East” says Kim Lane Scheppele in her interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung. We read this as a call to examine how politics takes root in communities and how people feel recognised: Who is present on the ground? Who takes an interest in people’s experiences? Who credibly represents their concerns?

In a recent ZEIT interview, sociologist Hartmut Rosa makes a striking point: populist movements do not only mobilise anger. They also mobilise hope, action and the feeling that something can still be changed.

Peter Uffelmann liefert in seinem Essay „Die dysregulierte Gesellschaft“ (2026) eine bemerkenswerte Antwort: Viele Menschen erleben die Gegenwart als permanenten Zustand von Unsicherheit, Veränderung und Kontrollverlust.

What happens when automation creates enormous economic gains, but those gains increasingly accrue to capital rather than labour?
A new NBER working paper by Daron Acemoglu, A. Arda Gitmez and Mehdi Shadmehr, Automation and Repression, examines precisely this question.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to transform democratic participation. A recent Süddeutsche Zeitung article, drawing on new OECD and Bertelsmann Stiftung research, shows how AI can make participation more accessible, scalable and meaningful.

From civic technology to organizational intelligence
eKairos operates in the civic-tech sphere with a clear ambition: to foster democracy by creating better infrastructures for listening, dialogue and collective intelligence.

Contact Theory, Social Media und agonistische KI
Oft heißt es: „Wir müssen wieder miteinander reden.“ Die Annahme dahinter klingt plausibel: Wenn Menschen unterschiedlicher Gruppen mehr Kontakt haben, sinken Vorurteile, Polarisierung nimmt ab, Demokratie wird stabiler.

Against Naivety. For Democratic Reality. We are often told that projects like eKairos are naive. Too slow. Too idealistic. Too human. We take that accusation seriously — and reject it.
What is truly naive is believing that democracy survives on autopilot.

EchoPolis versus Twitter
At eKairos, democracy does not begin with outrage. It begins with a table. With voices. With disagreement held long enough to be understood. Our symbol is not accidental: the EchoPolis coffee pot. A familiar object. A shared ritual. A place where arguments don’t explode — they brew.

Metro Polis: Ehrenamtliches Team gesucht
Ab Oktober 2026 bringt metro_polis Münchner Straßenbahnen miteinander ins Gespräch. Ehrenamtliches Team gesucht!

Europa blickt häufig mit einer Mischung aus Bewunderung und Sorge auf die globale KI-Entwicklung. Mein Besuch der VivaTech 2026 in Paris hat diesen Eindruck bestätigt – aber auch Hoffnung gemacht.

Wer sagt, dass Hackathons nur aus Pizza und Energydrinks bestehen?
Wir haben das Skript komplett umgeschrieben!

Warum EchoPolis eine demokratische Infrastruktur für das 21. Jahrhundert sein kann.
Der Liberalismus steckt nicht nur in einer politischen Krise. Er steckt in einer Beziehungskrise.

How can Europe remain legitimate, resilient and capable of acting – in an age of fragemntation, platform dependency and accelerating technological change?

Nutzt Du auch „mal eben“ ChatGPT (wie früher Google 😎)?
Wirfst Du den Chatbot an, anstatt im Internet zu suchen oder Wikipedia zu nutzen? Dann bist Du nicht allein: Schon 15 Prozent der unter 25jährigen nutzen KI-Modelle wie ChatGPT, anstatt im Internet nach Nachrichten zu suchen.

AGORAHACKS 26a_Saving Public Discourse
10.-12.4.26 eKairos c/o SALON Luitpold Building Democratic Infrastructure
Some hackathons begin with code.
Ours began with coffee. That was not a gimmick. It was the whole point.

Proud to announce the first civictech hackathon in a coffeehouse:
We’re building something ambitious — and we need the right people.
For “Saving Public Discourse”, our upcoming hackathon at Cafe Luitpold, we are bringing together top talent from Tech, Politics, and Business to prototype the next generation of democratic infrastructure — built on a European Eurostack.

Expected to involve exclusively European technology partners and the best European universities (TUM & LMU) and ambitious participants from France, Poland and Germany!

A European Agora Under Pressure: During the 𝟲𝟮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, we once again became a space for strategic exchange beyond official stages and diplomatic scripts.

Great conversations at the #PoliticalTechSummit (23., 24.1.26 in Berlin) & a big thank you to an outstanding panel I had the honor to moderate.