How Ukraine Is Involving Citizens In Its Reconstruction Efforts
Interview | Ukraine may still be fighting a war, but its reconstruction efforts are already underway. As a pioneer in digital participation, the country is developing a digital tool that will increase transparency and allow citizens to help shape the rebuilding process.
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Brussels Voice – Can Participatory Democracy Replace the Right to Vote?
One in three people living in Brussels is non-Belgian. This means they cannot vote in regional elections. This year, Commissioner Brussels is working with the regional parliament to set up a citizen panel of international citizens of Brussels. The goal: to give them a voice in how the city where they live is run. Democracy Technologies spoke with project officer, Bryn Watkins, about what they hope to achieve and why it’s complicated
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Balancing Analogue and Digital in Participation Projects
When it comes to participation, digital tools might not always be the best fit for the job. We spoke to Participation Factory project manager Renáta Balogh about her work on different projects in the Czech Republic, how every project needs a unique approach and some of the challenges in applying technical solutions.
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Can EurHope Involve 1 Million Young People in EU Politics?
EU Public Affairs Manager, Nahr, is upbeat in spite of the polycrises Europe currently faces as it looks towards next year’s European elections. “The good news is that destiny is in our hands – we’re not doomed, there is space for hope and destiny”, he says. Nahr is referring to the EurHope project that launched […]
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Scotland Embraces Digital Democracy at Parliamentary Level
What happens when digital approaches to deliberative democracy are adopted at parliamentary level? The Scottish parliament tells us more.
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What If Participation Was More Like A Game?
If you’ve recently spent time on Duolingo, claimed airmiles or downloaded an exercise app like Zombies, Run!, you’re familiar with the basic elements of gamification. Commercial enterprises have used features that we typically associate with games – goals and challenges, point scoring, personalisation and rapid, visible feedback for decades to increase consumer engagement. But what […]
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From Clicktivism to Hacktivism
New technologies provide a range of different participation levels that may favour a broadening, rather than a deepening of engagement. Yet this, according to Dr. Bas Baccarne, senior researcher at imec-MICT-Ghent University, is not necessarily a bad thing.
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Rahvaalgatus.ee – Enabling Successful Petitions at the Local Level
On Rahvaalgatus.es, citizens can introduce, debate and vote on petitions that will be brought to the table with the respective local governing body once the citizen has received the required support.
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What Makes Participatory Budgeting Work in Rybnik?
DT: What motivated you to start Participatory Budgeting in Rybnik? Piotr Kuczera: Participatory Budgeting in Rybnik started in 2013. But the initial idea came in 2009-2010 when a local NGO – the Social Initiatives Development Centre (CRIS) – implemented an innovative citizen participation project aimed at two very different districts of Rybnik. The goal of […]
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One Third of Eligible Youth Participates in Helsinki Youth Budget
Interview | The Helsinki Youth Budget allows young people in Helsinki to have a say in how the city's money is spent and also to take part in the implementation of projects. We spoke to Johanna Laukkanen, Interaction Specialist at the City of Helsinki about the project.
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EU Citizen Participation — What needs to change?
Democracy Technologies: The Bertelsmann Stiftung published an extensive study last year, 2022, calling for an EU framework for citizen participation. What was the inspiration for this study? Dominik Hierlemann: New forms of citizen participation have become a hot topic with interesting developments all over Europe. We have been involved in the field for quite some […]
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Building a Resilient Community in Valongo
The Portuguese city Valongo has developed a programme called 'Switch to Innovation' that fosters citizen engagement and creates a cohesive community through the use of technology.
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Lessons from Ghent
The city of Ghent in Belgium has a long history of citizen participation and have found that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to participation.
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Democracy Without Borders
As part of its campaign to promote global democracy and a UN Parliamentary Assembly, Berlin-based Democracy Without Borders is developing a platform to simulate what that might look like, and encouraging everyone to give it a go.
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Latvia, the Land of Successful Petitions
ManaBalss has been giving Latvian citizens a voice in their parliament for over 10 years now. As one of the digital democracy finalists in the Innovation in Politics Awards, we wanted to learn more about the secret of its success.
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