The challenge of regulating technologies from a multi-level perspective
As Assistant Professor for the chair of European Law and Governance, Claudio Matera looks into how the European Union deals with challenges such as those that are imposed by technological developments. ‘Technological innovations are impacting our lives in a manner which has never been presented to us before. Everything is faster. This means that public bodies and governance authorities have to adapt and understand whether or not and to what extent these innovations require regulation to protect both the technological innovations themselves, but also those who potentially use the technological advancements and other citizens.’
‘Going beyond what books can tell us’
Claudio Matera wants to confront his students with these challenges and, together with his colleagues within the program, give them a public administration education that is ready to face and tackle these challenges. In his part of the program, students will be introduced to how the world is organized in terms of institutions, how decisions are taken and from which level it is best to govern and regulate certain phenomena. ‘Students of European Public Administration should have a passion and curiosity for what surrounds us, for innovation, for trying to find solutions, and for going beyond what books can tell us.’
Students will develop solutions to newly emerging challenges
Claudio Matera assumes that the cyber world is the most challenging technological development of our time. This has a simple reason: the cyber world is transnational by its nature, it does not have borders. ‘Member states of the European Union can try to create borders, but we know that IT experts can go across those borders. The challenge is how to regulate such a transnational phenomenon. It requires multi-level governance and decision making. We will study this not only by using theories as you would do in other universities, but we will start by introducing the students to the cyber world and the societal elements of it: cyber reality, cyber communities and identity. We will ask the students to form groups and, for example, provide the first framework for cyber governance, which we are still lacking.’ Matera’s aim is to prepare his students to be able to deal with dynamic agendas and newly emerging challenges once they are working for public institutions or private companies. ‘Our students will be able to deal with that. We will ask them to tackle those challenges and to find solutions for better governance, always with a view towards reforming and continuously adapting formal institutions to the challenges ahead’.
Learn more about the programme
There are a few ways to learn more about the Bachelor's in European Public Administration:
- All information can be found on the website
- Our study choice calendar helps you choose
- Download the brochure below for a quick overview