INCITE-DEM – Inclusive Citizenship in a world in Transformation: Co-Designing for Democracy

Project Information

INCITE-DEM

Grant agreement ID: 101094258

DOI

10.3030/101094258

Project closed

EC signature date 12 December 2022

Start date 1 March 2023

End date 28 February 2026

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 988 838,75

EU contribution

€ 2 988 838,75

Coordinated by

FCIENCIAS.ID - ASSOCIACAO PARA A INVESTIGACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO DE CIENCIAS
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INCITE-DEM (INCITE-DEM – Inclusive Citizenship in a world in Transformation: Co-Designing for Democracy)

Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

INCITE-DEM’s main goal is to enhance inclusive participation and civic engagement, through expanding democratic innovation and dynamic feedback mechanisms between citizens and institutional actors in representative democracies. The activities involve a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary consortium, representing nine European countries. The project starts with historical research on inclusive civic participation and engagement practices. 15 case studies offer insights into innovative civic participation and engagement processes in Europe. Empirical findings are matched by advanced quantitative analysis of European survey data to uncover trends in citizens' attitudes and satisfaction with democracy. The project develops a novel methodology, namely the Democracy Labs to be implemented in six countries, engaging with an inclusive and diverse group of 180 citizens and stakeholders. Participants are invited to cocreate novel principles, processes, and spaces shaping democratic innovation proposals. The Democracy Labs are supported by generative design methods, and new tools, such as the ‘dialogue tool’, which produces a dynamic social simulation. The resulting democratic innovations are illustrated through final design products to be presented as stories and short films. In the second half of the project, advanced analytical methods will produce a systemic view of the key interests and concerns of citizens and stakeholders considering the participation of vulnerable communities. A choice experiment survey involving a representative sample of citizens from five European countries will assess the external validity of qualitative findings with a broader audience. In parallel, meetings with 135 policymakers (i.e. interactive fora) will take place at the country level, to explore the viability of the solutions proposed. These results will be integrated into recommendations to produce roadmaps for the near future of democracy by 2030-2050. INCITE-DEM thus fosters a dynamic Community of Practice, with at least 80 organisations represented, to support ongoing dissemination of the democratic innovations developed.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project runs over a period of 36 months and has been active for 15 months. The initial historical review entailed the engagement of 18 interviewed experts, who are recognised international leaders in democratic innovation and inclusive participation and engagement. Extensive scoping literature reviews were conducted to compile an appraisal of civic participation and engagement toward sustainable solutions. This led to the development of a timeline and open database of sustainability-related and inclusive participation and engagement practices in Europe since the early days of digitalisation. The following advanced quantitative analysis of the European Social Survey provided an overview of citizens’ attitudes toward democracy and political participation, presenting trends over time and variations across countries and socio-demographic groups. The research into 15 case studies, involving 158 interviewed individuals, enabled a comparison of different forms and mechanisms of participation and engagement, and the involvement of more vulnerable citizens and communities in democratic life. Furthermore, the first version of the dialogue tool, an agent-based model social simulation tool, was developed and tested with stakeholders and citizens, supported by a video and tutorial. The new Democracy Labs methodology developed by the consortium was presented in a toolkit and successfully tested in three countries with a diverse group of citizens and stakeholders, who cocreated new principles, procedures, and spaces for imagined democratic innovations. The upcoming research and innovation activities will include the implementation of the Democracy Labs in three more countries, the analysis of the results of cocreation into final design products, their wider validation through a European choice experiment, and feasibility testing with policymakers. These activities will lead towards the development of policy roadmaps and dialogues on inclusive civic participation and engagement for sustainability.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The scientific excellence of the project’s outputs provided diverse results beyond the state of the art:
1) the historical-oriented scoping literature review showed how social and political upheavals of the 1960’s and 70’s were significant attempts of democratisation in policy and decision-making. In the 1980s and 1990s, participatory budgeting and the “deliberative turn” took centre stage. In the 2000s, the international acknowledgment of democratic innovation was grounded on scholarly discussion about different typologies and institutional designs for civic participation and engagement.
2) the newly compiled open database mapped for the first time the dynamics of democratic innovations across Europe, offering valuable insights into the potential for these innovations to foster more inclusive and resilient societies in line with the UN sustainable social and environmental development goals (SDGs).
3) the advanced analysis of survey data demonstrated that citizens have divergent understandings of democracy; that satisfaction with democracy and trust in political institutions vary across countries; and that very similar patterns of participation and engagement emerge when examining political participation in traditional and unconventional forms.
4) the case study research findings (to be published by August 2024), offer new perspectives into the successes and failures, hindering and enabling factors for inclusive civic participation and engagement processes.
5) the dialogue tool evidenced diverse scenarios for community decision-making processes.
6) a Toolkit for a new cocreation methodology – i.e. Democracy Labs – with the support of generative design methods and careful recruitment, planning, and facilitation processes, will continue to be finetuned and improved based on the experiences of Democracy Labs in six European countries until a final version is provided for future uptake by other organisations and citizens engaged in developing democratic innovations.

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