Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INSPIRE (Intersectional Spaces of Participation: Inclusive, Resilient, Embedded)
Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2025-06-30
Participatory and deliberative democracy (PDD) is often celebrated for its potential to rebuild trust, reduce polarisation and support better policymaking. It has also been criticised for failing to engage marginalised communities. These failures are often rooted in structural inequalities related for example to socioeconomic status, gender, age, ethnicity, (dis)ability, education, and how different parts of a person's identity intersect, shaping unique experiences of discrimination. INSPIRE seeks to transform participatory democracy by embedding intersectional equity into its design and practice. The overarching aim is to create participatory spaces that are inclusive, resilient and embedded. To achieve this, INSPIRE draws on 3 core conceptual frameworks:
• Political Economy of Participation to understand how socioeconomic conditions shape individuals’ capacity to engage in democratic processes.
• Co-Design to co-create participatory spaces with participants, testing a range of creative and arts-based methods.
Assemblage Theory as lens that helps capture the interconnectedness and dynamism of participatory processes This allows INSPIRE to move beyond talk-centric models of deliberation and instead embrace a more dynamic, inclusive, and context-sensitive approach to participation.
INSPIRE’s pathway to impact is multi-dimensional, targeting change at the individual, community, institutional, and policy levels:
• Individual Level: co-creating safe spaces with participants that strengthen democratic capabilities, sense of belonging and agency.
• Community Level: fostering social cohesion and new networks of solidarity through embedding participatory processes in existing civil society work.
• Institutional Level: supporting public institutions to embed inclusive and responsive participatory practices.
• Policy Level: developing recommendations and frameworks to inform participatory policymaking at different tiers of government.
INSPIRE contributes to the EU’s strategic goals of fostering inclusive governance, reducing inequalities, and strengthening democratic resilience.
The project integrates theories from political science, sociology, critical race studies, and feminist theory to develop new conceptual tools such as the Democratic Capabilities Framework, Political User Experience (PUX) and Intersectional Assemblage These disciplines also inform the methodological approach, which includes qualitative comparative analysis, participatory action research, and arts-based methods. This integration ensures that the project is grounded in a deep understanding of power, identity, and social structures, and that it produces knowledge that is both academically rigorous and socially transformative.
• Political Economy of Participation to understand how socioeconomic conditions shape individuals’ capacity to engage in democratic processes.
• Co-Design to co-create participatory spaces with participants, testing a range of creative and arts-based methods.
Assemblage Theory as lens that helps capture the interconnectedness and dynamism of participatory processes This allows INSPIRE to move beyond talk-centric models of deliberation and instead embrace a more dynamic, inclusive, and context-sensitive approach to participation.
INSPIRE’s pathway to impact is multi-dimensional, targeting change at the individual, community, institutional, and policy levels:
• Individual Level: co-creating safe spaces with participants that strengthen democratic capabilities, sense of belonging and agency.
• Community Level: fostering social cohesion and new networks of solidarity through embedding participatory processes in existing civil society work.
• Institutional Level: supporting public institutions to embed inclusive and responsive participatory practices.
• Policy Level: developing recommendations and frameworks to inform participatory policymaking at different tiers of government.
INSPIRE contributes to the EU’s strategic goals of fostering inclusive governance, reducing inequalities, and strengthening democratic resilience.
The project integrates theories from political science, sociology, critical race studies, and feminist theory to develop new conceptual tools such as the Democratic Capabilities Framework, Political User Experience (PUX) and Intersectional Assemblage These disciplines also inform the methodological approach, which includes qualitative comparative analysis, participatory action research, and arts-based methods. This integration ensures that the project is grounded in a deep understanding of power, identity, and social structures, and that it produces knowledge that is both academically rigorous and socially transformative.
INSPIRE has implemented a wide-ranging programme of research, experimentation, and policy engagement across Consortium countries. Key achievements include:
• Scoping Review of arts-based participatory methods, highlighting their potential to foster intersectional inclusion. Methods such as Photovoice, legislative theatre, and storytelling were analysed to examine both their transformative impact and ethical challenges.
• Report on Urban Assemblages to explore how the design of e-democracy platforms, urban development models, and the political cultures of cities co-constitute each other as part of urban assemblages. It introduces the concept of PUX to evaluate and redesign digital participation platforms in ways that prioritise inclusivity, civic agency, and institutional responsiveness.
• Participatory Pilots: 7 participatory processes were co-designed with marginalised groups across different contexts, including youth, migrants, people with disabilities, elderly women, and war refugees. Each process addressed a specific policy issue and tested creative methods to support intersectional inclusion.
• Policy Engagement: A hybrid Policy Roundtable convened policymakers, academics, and civil society actors to discuss intersectional participation. A Policy Brief was produced to guide inclusive policymaking.
• Digital Innovation: The Decidim platform was adapted to support inclusive digital participation, including the launch of DecidimKids for safe youth engagement. A Policy Tracker was developed to monitor implementation of proposals generated through the 7 participatory processes.
• Democratic Capabilities Framework (DCF): Work is progressing in developing INSPIRE’s DCF through interviews, literature reviews, and pilot data. The DCF theorises the conditions that enable meaningful participation. It integrates insights from intersectionality, deliberative democracy, and capability theories.
• Q-Method and Conjoint Surveys: Work is undergoing to understand perceptions of participation and intersectional equality among citizens and public officials.
• Scoping Review of arts-based participatory methods, highlighting their potential to foster intersectional inclusion. Methods such as Photovoice, legislative theatre, and storytelling were analysed to examine both their transformative impact and ethical challenges.
• Report on Urban Assemblages to explore how the design of e-democracy platforms, urban development models, and the political cultures of cities co-constitute each other as part of urban assemblages. It introduces the concept of PUX to evaluate and redesign digital participation platforms in ways that prioritise inclusivity, civic agency, and institutional responsiveness.
• Participatory Pilots: 7 participatory processes were co-designed with marginalised groups across different contexts, including youth, migrants, people with disabilities, elderly women, and war refugees. Each process addressed a specific policy issue and tested creative methods to support intersectional inclusion.
• Policy Engagement: A hybrid Policy Roundtable convened policymakers, academics, and civil society actors to discuss intersectional participation. A Policy Brief was produced to guide inclusive policymaking.
• Digital Innovation: The Decidim platform was adapted to support inclusive digital participation, including the launch of DecidimKids for safe youth engagement. A Policy Tracker was developed to monitor implementation of proposals generated through the 7 participatory processes.
• Democratic Capabilities Framework (DCF): Work is progressing in developing INSPIRE’s DCF through interviews, literature reviews, and pilot data. The DCF theorises the conditions that enable meaningful participation. It integrates insights from intersectionality, deliberative democracy, and capability theories.
• Q-Method and Conjoint Surveys: Work is undergoing to understand perceptions of participation and intersectional equality among citizens and public officials.
INSPIRE’s key innovations:
• Theoretical Contributions: INSPIRE reconceptualises participation as an assemblage—dynamic, multi-layered, and context-sensitive. DCF offers a novel framework for assessing democratic capabilities, while PUX redefines digital participation evaluation.
• Methodological Innovation: The project pioneers the use of arts-based methods in participatory policymaking, demonstrating their effectiveness in engaging marginalised communities and recognising ethical challenges they might also raise.
• Empirical Insights: INSPIRE’s database of deliberative mini-publics, combined with pilot data, enables comparative analysis of inclusion dynamics. A forthcoming QCA will identify conditions that foster or hinder intersectional inclusion.
• Digital Tools: DecidimKids and the Policy Tracker enhance transparency, accountability, and accessibility in digital participation.
• Interdisciplinary Integration: INSPIRE bridges political science, sociology, arts, and digital humanities, contributing to a holistic understanding of democratic innovation.
• Capacity Building: The project supports learning opportunities on more impactful and inclusive participation for policymakers and practitioners involved in the pilots; it strengthens democratic capabilities of the groups participating in our participatory spaces.
• Theoretical Contributions: INSPIRE reconceptualises participation as an assemblage—dynamic, multi-layered, and context-sensitive. DCF offers a novel framework for assessing democratic capabilities, while PUX redefines digital participation evaluation.
• Methodological Innovation: The project pioneers the use of arts-based methods in participatory policymaking, demonstrating their effectiveness in engaging marginalised communities and recognising ethical challenges they might also raise.
• Empirical Insights: INSPIRE’s database of deliberative mini-publics, combined with pilot data, enables comparative analysis of inclusion dynamics. A forthcoming QCA will identify conditions that foster or hinder intersectional inclusion.
• Digital Tools: DecidimKids and the Policy Tracker enhance transparency, accountability, and accessibility in digital participation.
• Interdisciplinary Integration: INSPIRE bridges political science, sociology, arts, and digital humanities, contributing to a holistic understanding of democratic innovation.
• Capacity Building: The project supports learning opportunities on more impactful and inclusive participation for policymakers and practitioners involved in the pilots; it strengthens democratic capabilities of the groups participating in our participatory spaces.