Digital data connectivity and virtual communities are shaping our attitudes and expectations, influencing the way we communicate and interact with each other and changing our cultural, religious and political experiences. There is no question that digitalization affects society as a whole. But what impact do these developments have on our spirituality, our hopes and beliefs? How do they influence the value systems on which our democracies and economies are based? And in particular, how do they change the relationship between Western and Eastern Europe?

These topics have been discussed at an international conference in Bolzano-Bozen on June 6, 2019. At the invitation of the Center for Advanced Studies and the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone, experts provided insights into the manifold developments of our times.

This conference is the first of a series of three events organized by the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), the Steinbeis Foundation and the Center for Advanced Studies of Eurac Research under the motto “Digitalization, Spirituality, and Democracy”. At the heart of the inaugural event in Bolzano lies the question “Digitalization and Spirituality: contradictory or complementary?”