Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Holger Kiik

@holgerkiik.bsky.social

2.8K followers 1.7K following 610 posts

Epistemology of Democracy; Challenges & Innovations of Democracy; Critical thinking; Philosophy https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Meos-Kiik Half-baked thoughts. Occasional pics of cats, nature or stuff that surprises me. 🇪🇪 stands with Ukraine 🇺🇦

www.researchgate.net

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Nov 10

What is common in epistocratic elitism and populism as critiques of representative democracy? They might seem polar opposites, but share assumptions of the nature of politics, political truths and basis for legitimacy.
My Open Access article:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Epistocracy and populism: second-order ideologies challenging democracy

Epistocracy and populism are usually seen as opposites. The first finds error in democracy’s reliance on the sub-optimal decisions by the supposedly incompetent masses, and argues that political de...

www.tandfonline.com

4 10 29

Reposted by Holger Kiik

Political Research Exchange @prxjournal.bsky.social · 5h

🍊 Fresh out!

Petr Kokaisl examines how the presence of a functioning nation-state shapes national #identity in diaspora.

👇
buff.ly/Bqfnm8m

2 1

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · 19h

To be fair, Germany gets a bad rep and talks less grandiose than some other countries, but ranks number 2 in total aid to Ukraine (different story per GDP, of course).
www.kielinstitut.de/topics/war-a...

Ukraine Support Tracker - A Database of Military, Financial and Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine

The Ukraine Support Tracker lists and quantifies military, financial and humanitarian aid promised by governments to Ukraine.

www.kielinstitut.de

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · 20h

New interview with a previous #German chancellor just dropped:
www.youtube.com/shorts/U48Kq...
#Ukraine #Merkel #Schröder

POV: you are 🇺🇦 living in Germany

YouTube video by Dima Watermelon

www.youtube.com

1 2

Reposted by Holger Kiik

Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 2d

Really excited that after several years of working on it, revising, and getting lots of rejections, our paper (w/ Rune Stubager & Mads Thau) on citizens’ responses to group appeals is *finally* out @ejprjournal.bsky.social

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A 🧵 on our findings...

How group appeals shape candidate support: The role of group membership, identity strength, and deservingness perceptions | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core

How group appeals shape candidate support: The role of group membership, identity strength, and deservingness perceptions

www.cambridge.org

2 19 61

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · 2d

Russland: Wir möchten alle Ost-Europa wieder zu besetzen, Menschen zu töten, Völke zu vernichten.
Ost-Europa: Ee... Nein, Danke.
#Merkel: Oo, Meinungsunterschiede. Wir brauchen einen Kompromiss. Seien Sie vernünftig und lassen Sie mich mit Putin 1:1 sprechen, um über Ihre Souveränität zu entscheiden

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · 2d

"The Office" ft. #Germany.
Unglaublich, dass 3,5/ 11 Jahren später täuscht mann sich noch & hält Vorträge über Putinverstehen, wie jede USA Präsident mit der "Reset-Taste".
"KoronaVirus... Wir könnten einander nicht treffen...Auge in Auge die Meinungsunterschiede...".
Thankfully #Merz is not fooled

Angela Merkel: a magyar nép feladata eldönteni, újraválasztja-e Orbán Viktort

YouTube video by Partizán

youtu.be

1 1

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · 6d

Congratulations, Dr. Lopes! 💥

1 1

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · 6d

Day 2 live:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRwG...

#athensdemocracyforum #polphil #polsci #polsky #polisci

Reposted by Holger Kiik

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

650 8.2K 25K

Reposted by Holger Kiik

Lena Frischlich @lenafrescamente.bsky.social · 7d

#PublicationAlert 🥰. This one has been long in the making: It started with a @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in 2023, lead to a working group at the SFI in 2024, multiple online-meetings (one from Costa Rica, Munich, Denmark, Mumbai, and the US), thought-provoking and truly interdisciplinary work.

1 6 15

Reposted by Holger Kiik

MEDem @medem.bsky.social · 11d

They say: once there’s a paper 📝, it’s real…
🎉 #MEDem in #EPS @ecpr.bsky.social

The paper outlines how MEDem will strengthen #OpenScience by making data #FAIR in #DemocracyResearch – and how scholars across Europe are joining forces to build a truly open #ResearchInfrastructure ⚙️

Screenshot of the article “Open science in democracy research: the research infrastructure ‘Monitoring Electoral Democracy’ (MEDem)” published in European Political Science. The header shows the journal name, DOI link, and the label “DEBATE.” Below, the title is followed by the author list: Hajo Boomgaarden, Alexia Katsanidou, Sylvia Kritzinger, Georg Lutz, Johanna Willmann, and Jakob-Moritz Eberl. The abstract explains the aims of MEDem as a European research infrastructure to make democracy research data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable). Keywords listed include open science, FAIR data, ESFRI roadmap, research infrastructure, democracy research, data harmonization, data linking, and data set search. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-025-00534-8

1 27 47

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · 7d

Athens Democracy Forum fascinating discussions being livestreamed:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U18E...

Program: www.athensdemocracyforum.com/program/2025...
A relevant Bluesky account: @demcultfoundation.bsky.social

#Democracy #Polisky #Polsci #athensdemocracyforum #Polphil

Athens Democracy Forum 2025 - Day 1

YouTube video by Athens Democracy Forum

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Holger Kiik

Tim Crane @timcrane.bsky.social · 16d

Philosophers of mind! The University of Vienna is offering a professorship and has extended the deadline to 19 October. philjobs.org/job/show/29293

Full Professor of Philosophy of Mind, University of Vienna - PhilJobs:JFP Full Professor of Philosophy of Mind, University of Vienna

An international database of jobs for philosophers

philjobs.org

19 25

Reposted by Holger Kiik

Friderike Spang @friderikespang.bsky.social · 15d

Coming out soon!
I've written a chapter for this book, where I compare compromise between persons to compromise within a person.
Looking forward to reading the other chapters!!
Many thanks to the editors for putting this together 🙏
@karstenmause.bsky.social

#academicsky

Book cover and details for History and Theory of Compromise, open access, to be published 2026

5 11

Reposted by Holger Kiik

Altmetric @altmetric.com · 29d

Turn those red pins into saved bookmarks! Definitely one we will be using.

Bluesky @bsky.app · 29d

If you've been using a 📌 emoji to bookmark posts, @rafael.my and @samuel.bsky.team cooked up a special tool you can use to migrate them to your Saved Posts.

Try it here: pin2saved.vercel.app

pin2saved for Bluesky

Migrate your Bluesky 📌 replies to saved posts.

pin2saved.vercel.app

1 6 21

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Sep 4

"russia is categorically opposed to placing foreign military troops in #Ukraine".
Well, that's great: get your troops out of Ukraine, then!

Jokes aside, no reasons will "convince" a lunatic. russia must just be kicked out of #Ukraine by all means, all else is rewarding aggression.

Reposted by Holger Kiik

GloPhi – Philosophizing in a Globalized World @glophi.bsky.social · Sep 2

Namita Herzl (ed.): Women Beyond the Canon: Philosophies and Feminisms, Hildesheim: Universitätsverlag Hildesheim, 2025.

Full Open Access: doi.org/10.18442/hpg...

#philosophy #feminism

2 6

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Sep 2

My experience is that hybrid events that relate to ignorance, intelligence, situatedness and democracy most likely welcome everyone to listen.
Some "required fields" in the registration form, but I assume affiliation can very well be "none" or "independent scholar" (I'm not organizing it ofc.).

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Sep 2

#philosophy #epistemology #socialepistemology #ethics #polphil #feminism

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Sep 2

I noticed the event way too late, but it's hybrid, so perhaps you would also like to catch some presentations:
"(Not) Caring to Know: Vice Epistemology meets Situated Affectivity"

by Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value at the University of Pardubice 🇨🇿

centreforethics.upce.cz/en/not-carin...

(Not) Caring to Know: Vice Epistemology meets Situated Affectivity | Centre for ethics

centreforethics.upce.cz

2 1

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Aug 23

#philosophy #politicalepistemology #democraticinnovations #polsky
www.bloomsbury.com/us/instituti...

Institutional Epistemology and Extreme Inequality

Institutional Epistemology and Extreme Inequality: Knowledge and Governance in a Non-ideal World provides an account of the fundamental design of an institution…

www.bloomsbury.com

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Aug 23

And although spending much time together, talking about career-planning, how we should self-advertise me more or "be visible", forgot to take a single photo. So here is proof of the event happening :) It was very nice. Maybe the organizers took photos.
Ps. Cerovac and Žubcic have great books

Epistemic Democracy and Political Legitimacy

This compelling new book explores whether the ability of democratic procedures to produce correct outcomes increases the legitimacy of such political decisions. Mapping the main theories of epistemic ...

link.springer.com

1 6

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Aug 23

I am constantly reminded to self-advertise more, do linkedin, post photos of events etc. I agree but forget & share articles I like.

After organizing a "Knowledge and Democracy" panel at the Estonian Annual Philosophy Conference with @miasmafactory.bsky.social & I. Cerovac, we discussed it again.

1 1 4

Holger Kiik @holgerkiik.bsky.social · Aug 19

You know this of course, but for context if someone missed it last year:
www.bbc.com/news/world-a...

Nauru cuts diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of China

Taiwan loses one of its few official allies just days after a presidential election.

www.bbc.com

Reposted by Holger Kiik

Dropkick Murphys @dropkickmurphys.com · Aug 15

We Stand With The People Of Ukraine 🇺🇦

📹: @thekenharbaughshow.bsky.social

11 170 800