Epistemic Citizenship and the Governance of Europe: Knowledge, Participation, and Democratic Agency

Abstract

Contemporary crises of liberal democracy in Europe reveal not only deficits of participation and representation, but also profound epistemic challenges concerning whose knowledge counts, how citizens are positioned as knowers, and how epistemic authority is governed across multilevel political systems. Against this backdrop, this panel brings together research on epistemic citizenship and governance to examine how European citizenship is being reconfigured through institutional arrangements, policy frameworks, research and participatory practices. Building on knowledge theory, citizenship studies, and governance research, the panel conceptualises epistemic citizenship as the capacity of individuals and collectives to access, produce, contest, and mobilise knowledge within democratic processes. This perspective foregrounds citizenship not merely as legal status or political participation, but as a practice of knowledge-related agency shaped by scientific narratives, institutional design, and democratic knowledge orders. In European and transnational contexts, such practices unfold within overlapping governance regimes, expert systems, and increasingly digital and algorithmic infrastructures that mediate voice, evidence, and legitimacy. The panel explicitly addresses debates on epistemic injustice and democratic knowledge orders by asking how epistemic inequalities are produced, stabilised, or challenged within European governance structures. It explores how participation formats and evidence regimes in EU contexts shape civic agency, particularly with regard to whose experiences, expertise, and claims are recognised as politically relevant. A central concern is how governance arrangements configure the conditions under which citizens can meaningfully contribute to collective knowledge production and decision-making. Contributions examine European citizenship practices, including youth participation, community-led research and action, digital and algorithmic governance, and EU-funded participatory programmes (e.g., Horizon Europe). Special attention is paid to youth, marginalised groups, and community-based forms of knowledge production, raising questions about how learning, voice, and epistemic agency are enabled or constrained across different social and institutional contexts. Across these perspectives, the panel is guided by a set of interrelated research questions: How is epistemic citizenship governed in contemporary Europe, and through which institutional and regulatory mechanisms? How do participatory designs and evidence practices in EU governance shape democratic agency and epistemic inclusion or exclusion? In what ways do digital infrastructures and expert regimes transform the relationship between knowledge, participation, and citizenship? And how can governance-sensitive approaches to epistemic justice contribute to a more inclusive and reflexive understanding of European democracy?

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