The Future is Not Set. Democratic Education in the Age of Homo Digitalis

Abstract The rapid development of digital technologies is affecting the conditions for liberal democracies (V-Dem Institute, 2024) and creating new demands and conditions for education (UNESCO, 2021). Although the connection between digital technology and democracy is widely acknowledged within international education policy agendas, educational research regarding digitalization and democratic early childhood education (ECE) is still scarce. The aim of this paper is to contribute with further understandings of and theoretical perspectives on democratic education in digital times. The potential impact of digitalization on the democratic task of education is explored through the theoretical lens of Hannah Arendt’s (1958) thoughts about the possible consequences of technological development to humankind’s ability to live together in a shared world. Arendt’s views are explored in relation to Byung- Chul Han´s reflections on Homo digitalis (2014), and further discussed through Peter Kemp´s theory on technology ethics (1991). The perspectives of these thinkers are used to argue that ECE needs to approach digitalization as a broad, ethical phenomenon, that affects human relations and interactions, thereby altering the conditions for democracy and democratic education. The conclusions suggest that the question of boundaries become a perpetual issue within democratic ECE in the age of Homo digitalis. By creating spaces for action and inactivity education can promote an awareness of how the boundaries we choose to set for technology are always related to the kind of world we wish to live in.