With this edition of the Debate Café, Studium Generale and SCOPE | Economics would like to direct attention to the topic of post-truth and how society should deal with it.

Panelists:
- Patrick Bijsmans, Assistant Professor in European Studies, FASoS
- Teun Dekker, Vice Dean of Academic Affairs, Associate Professor of Political Philosophy, UCM
- Dominik Karos, Assistant Professor in Economics, SBE
- Sjaak Koenis, Associate Professor of Philosophy, FASoS
- Rina Tsubaki, Media partnership & programme manager at the European Journalism Centre

Moderator:
Vigjilenca Abazi, Assistant Professor EU constitutional and institutional law, FdR, Research Coordinator CERiM Centre for European Research in Maastricht

Post-truth – “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief” (Oxford Dictionaries). Some of last year`s events related to democratic processes, such as the election of Donald Trump, Brexit and other referendums brought up many questions. One of those questioning whether people rely on experts and base their opinion on facts and investigative journalism or rely on dubious news sources or just feelings.

In many European countries elections are coming up, with some parties or movements making use of fear, growing nationalism and “anti-everything” slogans. Social media and social bots seem to play a more and more important role during elections. This political pillar is strongly interconnected with the global and local economy of countries and together affect the life of its citizens.

The Debate Café is an activity organised by Studium Generale in cooperation with a student association. It covers important recent developments in science and society. It’s a meeting place for experts, researchers and students. The Debate Café will be held in an informal setting. A panel of experts will talk about their research and its relation to and impact on society. Everyone in the audience can go into debate with the panel and exchange views and ideas.