Foresight #4 on Reimagining Democracy
Across Europe we see divided nations and communities and how citizens feel left behind. Many experience that they have few opportunities to influence their own lives, as well as opportunities to influence the development of society. Involving those concerned is a key component when designing sustainable solutions to the societal challenges of today.
In Social Innovation Foresight #4 on Reimagining democracy, 1 September, we reflected on and explored the problems of democracy and suggested different ways forward.
What are the main democracy issues? How can different actors and organisations empower citizens and assure that we give high quality access and voice to people in the margins, to the excluded or forgotten? How can research and innovation help to address the current challenges for democracies? How important is community involvement and empowerment for social innovation and for democracy? What different innovative ideas, alternatives and models are there? What can we achieve when involving a diversity of perspectives, from all sectors and target groups in society, in designing solutions for tomorrow? How can we reimagine democracy?
Listen to keynote Swati Banerjee, (PhD) Professor and Program Convenor at the School of Social Work, Centre for Livelihoods and Social Innovation at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai,
Katja Reppel, Head of Unit Directorate-Generale Research and Innovation (RTD) at the European Commission and,
Gorka Espiau Idoiaga (PhD) the Director at the “Agirre Lehendakaria Center for Social and Political Studies”.
The talk was moderated by Erin Cory, Assistant professor and senior lecturer at Malmö University.
Further reading and inspiration
People, organisations and initiatives
Swati Banerjee
https://www.tiss.edu/view/9/employee/sbanerjee/
The Unit Research and Innovation at the European Commission contributes to research and innovation by promoting trust in governance, the rule of law, active citizenship, the future of democracy, balancing security and safety with fundamental rights, public sector innovation, and gender equality and diversity in R&I policy.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/research-and-innovation_en
The Agirre Lehendakaria Center-ALC (Basque Social Innovation Lab) https://www.agirrecenter.eus/
The Community Listening Processes generates information in real time about the perceptions of communities while responding to ongoing initiatives. https://www.agirrecenter.eus/
The Democratic Society, an international non-profit organization based in Brussels and working in twenty countries across Europe on participation, citizen engagement and new forms of governance.
https://www.demsoc.org/
New Citizenship Project
https://www.newcitizenship.org.uk/
Leadership Council – the Democracy & Culture Foundation
https://www.democracyculturefoundation.org/who-we-are/leadership-council/
Engage Britain
https://engagebritain.org/
Ryan Shorthouse, is a British writer, thinker and entrepreneur. He is the founder and chief executive of Bright Blue, an independent think tank for promoting Liberal Conservatism.
http://www.brightblue.org.uk/
The New Institute
Which governance structures and forms of decision making enable legitimate and effective systemic change for a sustainable future?
https://thenew.institute/en/what/the-future-of-democracy
The Rethinking Democracy research platform (REDEM) at Malmö University
https://mau.se/en/research/research-platforms/redem/
Voter Turnout by Country 2022
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/voter-turnout-by-country
Freedom House:
Reimagining American Democracy
https://freedomhouse.org/event/reimagining-american-democracy
The Conversation:
https://theconversation.com/global
The Citizens’ convention on UK Democracy
https://www.ccukdemocracy.org/
Democracy Digest
https://www.demdigest.org/
The World Forum for Democracy
https://www.coe.int/en/web/world-forum-democracy/home
The McCourtney Institute for Democracy, Pennstate College of Liberal Arts
https://democracy.psu.edu/
States united democracy center
https://statesuniteddemocracy.org/
Reports
Nesta Democracy Pioneers
https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/democracy-pioneers/
Utmaningar och insatser för demokratin, inledande kartläggning av länsstyrelserna (pdf)
Video
Nesta event: The road to recovery: upgrading our democracy to build back better, 1 October, 2020.
https://www.nesta.org.uk/event/people-power-shift/road-recovery-upgrading-our-democracy-build-back-better/
The EU Commission
Citizen participation in cohesion policy
https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/citizen-participation-in-cohesion-policy
How to fix democracy
https://www.howtofixdemocracy.org/
How to Fix Democracy Season 3 | David van Reybrouck
Democracy Next
An international non-profit, non-partisan research and action institute https://demnext.org/
Books & articles
Nesta:
Stories of digital social innovation: Democracy
https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/stories-of-digital-social-innovation-democracy/
Citizen Participation in Democratic Europe : What Next for the EU? https://www.bookdepository.com/Citizen-Participation-Democratic-Europe-James-Organ/9781786612878
How social innovation can support citizen participation
https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/citizen-participation/67481/
Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century by Hélène Landemore