Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PHOENIX (The rise of citizens voices for a Greener Europe)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-02-01 do 2023-01-31
The Green Deal is a major challenge for EU and a crossroad between the different streamlines that compose it (energy, circular economy, protection of biodiversity, farm-to-fork chains, etc.) and an extensive range of other policies directly touching the daily life of citizens. Thus, efforts are needed to involve the most significant number of social groups and stakeholders in environmental transition by deeply debating the different policies related to EGD. Compensations and incentives can also increase the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of such policies and the commitment of citizens to contribute to higher degrees of sustainability.
PHOENIX addresses the complexity of aligning socio-institutional approaches, behaviours and lifestyles with the central goals and the desired changes engendered in the vision of EGD. When dealing with environmental topics, PHOENIX identified six main challenges that could threaten Democratic Innovations' full transformative potential. By connecting a multidisciplinary group of 15 partners from different parts of Europe, PHOENIX builds on a rich, consolidated tradition of participatory processes and refined deliberative methodologies successfully experimented in different policy-making domains linked to environmental transition patterns.
Elaborating on the lessons learned, PHOENIX designs an iterative process to enrich Democratic Innovations to address specific topics of EGD. A portfolio of sound methodologies and tools combines them, augmenting their quality of deliberation and the capacity to foster the readiness to change of different actors.
The methodologies and tools will be tested, monitored and assessed in 11 pilots in seven countries, covering various socio-cultural and environmental contexts and administrative levels. Finally, PHOENIX supports the methodologies' mainstreaming, scalability and adaptability, leveraging an inter-pilot dialogue grounded on evidence-based results and building a series of Policy Recommendations collectively.
PHOENIX addresses the complexity of aligning socio-institutional approaches, behaviours and lifestyles with the central goals and the desired changes engendered in the vision of EGD. When dealing with environmental topics, PHOENIX identified six main challenges that could threaten Democratic Innovations' full transformative potential. By connecting a multidisciplinary group of 15 partners from different parts of Europe, PHOENIX builds on a rich, consolidated tradition of participatory processes and refined deliberative methodologies successfully experimented in different policy-making domains linked to environmental transition patterns.
Elaborating on the lessons learned, PHOENIX designs an iterative process to enrich Democratic Innovations to address specific topics of EGD. A portfolio of sound methodologies and tools combines them, augmenting their quality of deliberation and the capacity to foster the readiness to change of different actors.
The methodologies and tools will be tested, monitored and assessed in 11 pilots in seven countries, covering various socio-cultural and environmental contexts and administrative levels. Finally, PHOENIX supports the methodologies' mainstreaming, scalability and adaptability, leveraging an inter-pilot dialogue grounded on evidence-based results and building a series of Policy Recommendations collectively.
PHOENIX's first year laid the groundwork for achieving its goals and broader impacts. A negotiation with EC technical structures identified three main topics of EGD on which PHOENIX will focus: energy transition, farm-to-fork, and circular economy. However, each of the 11 piloting territories will be entitled to adapt and address them via a different "entry topic", more attractive to citizens in a specific area (such as fire prevention and soil regeneration).
PHOENIX undertook extensive research to ground the further stages of DIs' enrichment and improve their capacity to support the implementation of the EGD transition pathway and build a better, greener future for EU societies. Through several in-depth seminars and the joint selection of almost 100 sound practices to be filed at different levels of critical analysis, a database of Sound Practices of Democratic Innovations (D2.1) was produced. The project analysed tools and methodologies aiming at a high-quality use of ICT technologies or to "stage" the presence of absent citizens or actors (as other-than-humans) that cannot raise their own voices, and so need to be represented through advocacy practices.
Other studies focused on the 11 territories where Enriched Democratic Innovations will be tested, as a result, three reports collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data related to the participatory cultures of each pilot territory, its specific models of relations between human and other-than-human, and the conflicts arisen around the implementation of the EGD framework.
The project also prepared for the next-step activities, particularly those related to the design of Tangrams (the specific configurations of the DIs that will be designed for the 11 pilots, considering their social, economic, cultural and environmental issues) and to the creation of Territorial Commissions of Co-design (TCCDs). The latter is mixed bodies structured in each pilot territory, designed to involve citizens and stakeholders in the co-creation and co-design of participatory and deliberative methodologies, as well as in the monitoring and evaluation of each testing. To this end, the project has already delivered a Monitoring Plan and a Draft Evaluation Plan, which include all project activities, particularly the assessment of the TCCDs and the piloting of each Tangram. These plans comprise several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the project's main impacts and describe the PHOENIX codesign approach to developing the evaluation plan as a shared space with civil society.
While shaping its supporting platform, PHOENIX also committed to networking with other projects, in special with Real-Deal, and the new Support Office for EGD. To ensure the quality of outcomes, a Methodological and Ethics Advisory Board was created. Its 5 members interacted with those of the twin project REAL_DEAL (funded by the same call, under GA nº 101037071), through a Joint Advisory Board involving academics and civic organizations active in complementary domains.
PHOENIX undertook extensive research to ground the further stages of DIs' enrichment and improve their capacity to support the implementation of the EGD transition pathway and build a better, greener future for EU societies. Through several in-depth seminars and the joint selection of almost 100 sound practices to be filed at different levels of critical analysis, a database of Sound Practices of Democratic Innovations (D2.1) was produced. The project analysed tools and methodologies aiming at a high-quality use of ICT technologies or to "stage" the presence of absent citizens or actors (as other-than-humans) that cannot raise their own voices, and so need to be represented through advocacy practices.
Other studies focused on the 11 territories where Enriched Democratic Innovations will be tested, as a result, three reports collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data related to the participatory cultures of each pilot territory, its specific models of relations between human and other-than-human, and the conflicts arisen around the implementation of the EGD framework.
The project also prepared for the next-step activities, particularly those related to the design of Tangrams (the specific configurations of the DIs that will be designed for the 11 pilots, considering their social, economic, cultural and environmental issues) and to the creation of Territorial Commissions of Co-design (TCCDs). The latter is mixed bodies structured in each pilot territory, designed to involve citizens and stakeholders in the co-creation and co-design of participatory and deliberative methodologies, as well as in the monitoring and evaluation of each testing. To this end, the project has already delivered a Monitoring Plan and a Draft Evaluation Plan, which include all project activities, particularly the assessment of the TCCDs and the piloting of each Tangram. These plans comprise several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the project's main impacts and describe the PHOENIX codesign approach to developing the evaluation plan as a shared space with civil society.
While shaping its supporting platform, PHOENIX also committed to networking with other projects, in special with Real-Deal, and the new Support Office for EGD. To ensure the quality of outcomes, a Methodological and Ethics Advisory Board was created. Its 5 members interacted with those of the twin project REAL_DEAL (funded by the same call, under GA nº 101037071), through a Joint Advisory Board involving academics and civic organizations active in complementary domains.
The innovation potential of PHOENIX relates, primarily, to its capacity of bridging the lessons learned from consolidated typologies of DIs and their best practices, with the creation, testing and consolidation of specific tools that can extend, enroot and mainstream new effective participatory and deliberative processes in the face of EGD challenges. The Enriched Democratic Innovation emerging from the 11 Tangram configurations aims to improve and scale up the quality of deliberation (with special attention to digital solutions), maximize the inclusion of a diverse range of citizens and increase trust-building among citizens, institutions and science.
In this perspective, the first year of PHOENIX activities only could lay the ground for progressing beyond the state-of-the-art in future activities. However, the partners highlighted some pivotal “knots” on which awareness and knowledge are dispersed and experimenting will be central during the next years. For example, we analysed different practices trying to advocate for (or “staging of”) the perspectives of absent or silenced actors (as future generations or other-than-humans). The latter will be embedded in the Tangrams, to test their significance for improving the quality and pluralism deliberation in relation to the discussion of the EGD transition pathway. With the help of a pool of environmental psychologists, the research activities also started reflecting on tools that will be tested for increasing the potential of the social construction of community bonds, augmenting the cognitive heuristics for trust development and combining individual and group-based dynamics to deepen the “readiness to change” of participants in DIs’ experiences. Preliminary work was also conducted to highlight how the approach to shape, consolidate and scale-up multichannel participatory systems composed of a diverse range of DIs, is proving able - in the longer term – to optimise the contribution of citizens' involvement to the implementation of EGD framework and several Sustainable Development Goals.
In this perspective, the first year of PHOENIX activities only could lay the ground for progressing beyond the state-of-the-art in future activities. However, the partners highlighted some pivotal “knots” on which awareness and knowledge are dispersed and experimenting will be central during the next years. For example, we analysed different practices trying to advocate for (or “staging of”) the perspectives of absent or silenced actors (as future generations or other-than-humans). The latter will be embedded in the Tangrams, to test their significance for improving the quality and pluralism deliberation in relation to the discussion of the EGD transition pathway. With the help of a pool of environmental psychologists, the research activities also started reflecting on tools that will be tested for increasing the potential of the social construction of community bonds, augmenting the cognitive heuristics for trust development and combining individual and group-based dynamics to deepen the “readiness to change” of participants in DIs’ experiences. Preliminary work was also conducted to highlight how the approach to shape, consolidate and scale-up multichannel participatory systems composed of a diverse range of DIs, is proving able - in the longer term – to optimise the contribution of citizens' involvement to the implementation of EGD framework and several Sustainable Development Goals.