Panel 8 - Public spaces for information and knowledge exchange

The trend to increase the coverage of Internet and related mass media, both in geographic and contents terms, expands progressively the public spaces of access, interchange and publication of information and knowledge. This phenomenon, anticipated in the development of the so-called information and knowledge society, demands, on one hand, the increasing availability of information, knowledge and scientific evidences as public goods, and, on the other hand, poses new questions and challenges for the democratic governability of the relationships of coexistence and interaction among individuals, groups and populations with different degrees of knowledge. This panel will address these problems with theoretical analyses and presentation of cases from the viewpoint of social sciences, public health and information science.