COVID-19: We’re here to help
Local governments are at the forefront of the COVID-19 crisis. Public administrations, local health services and first responders are being put under incredible strain and their efforts are an essential part in...
The future of Digital Democracy
Who could have imagined, just ten years ago, what 2020 would look like? Over the past ten years, our modern democracies have undergone a radical change. We have seen technology transform things for better, and for...
Could 2020 be the year where youth participation finally takes off?
Every United States’ election cycle brings back the same question: will the youth vote? In recent American history, only two elections succeeded in obtaining a youth (18-29 years old) turnout higher than 50%: Bill...
5 factors for impactful participation: the CLEAR model
There are many ways for local governments to engage their citizens in decision-making processes. Those different methods tend to have varying purposes and work their magic in specific contexts. Participatory...
Monthly Civic Tech Must-Reads #12
Whether we like it or not, COVID-19 has rocked the boat for all of us. And many of the changes brought about by the pandemic seem to be here to stay. Luckily, not all of these changes are as negative as the...
Citizens’ assemblies on a local scale | Takeaways from our webinar
Citizens’ assemblies come all the way from Ancient Greece. Their original purpose was to give all citizens a say in the decision-making process and to reach consensus through deliberation. The rules may have...
5 Ways Crowdsourcing Serves Our Governments
Friedrich Hayek wrote in 1945: “The knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form.” Today’s networks enable institutions to gain access...
Trends for youth civic engagement: online, inclusive, and local
By the time you finish reading this sentence, around 30,000 tweets have been posted and 200,000 searches have been made on Google. Technologically speaking, the world is moving faster than ever before. Advances in...
What is the Difference between Citizen Engagement and Participation?
Over the last few years, there’s been a shift from top-down governance to more horizontally organised types of government. This new political current includes all the stakeholders of public policy projects,...
24,450 citizens take part in Peñalolén’s participatory budget
Peñalolén (241,599 inhabitants), a Chilean commune in the province of Santiago, organised a participatory budget to co-create its community. In each neighbourhood, citizens could voice their opinions and vote on...
How to nurture a culture of innovation in government |5 takeaways from the Creative Bureaucracy Festival
Yes, you read that right – Creative Bureaucracy is a thing now. It’s so much of a thing, in fact, that it has its own festival, where thousands of civil servants and policy-makers connect over talks and...
Citizens Assemble: Your Planet Needs You! | Editorial
This article is a contribution from People’s Plan, a community organisation working to get citizens involved in shaping climate policies. Living in a democracy means we have the power to choose our governing...
Monthly Civic Tech Must-reads #11
What’s new in the realm of Civic Tech and digital democracy? Every month, we curate a list of must-read articles and thought-pieces that help us make sense of current times. This month, we’re still...
One tool, multiple possibilities: three examples of participatory budgeting
Recently, participatory budgeting has been the talk of the town(s). It would be a mistake to disregard them as a fad as they are, in fact, powerful tools used to make local governance more accessible and...
Are citizens’ assemblies the future of participation?
Citizens’ assemblies are as ancient as democracy itself, yet, they have received increasing attention in recent years. Assemblies are repeatedly mentioned as a solution for the most troublesome policy debates...
The ladder of citizen participation in the digital era
As you may know by now, “citizen participation” refers to the process of allowing citizens to participate in the public decision-making process. When it comes to citizen participation, the government...
INJUV empowers 28,250 millennials to discuss sustainable development ideas for Chile
INJUV, Chile’s National Youth Institute, is a public institution that collaborates with the government in designing policies related to youth affairs. To give millennials across the country the chance to voice...
Case study: Rueil-Malmaison creates a lasting online community
The secrets behind the platform’s success: trust, transparency, longevity. The French commune of Rueil-Malmaison (78,152 inhabitants), in the west suburbs of Paris, launched its participation platform in 2018...
What’s the difference between dialogue, debate, and deliberation?
It’s an inherent part of human nature to process information and form opinions of our own. These opinions are shaped by our background, education levels, access to information, and hundreds of other...
Monthly Civic Tech Must-reads #10
With a global pandemic, worldwide protests, and rapid evolutions shaking up pretty much every field, 2020 has been a wild year so far. Every month, we curate a selection of must-read articles from the realm of...
Online deliberation: 3 takeaways from our webinar with the Democratic Society
Consistent public deliberation is essential for democratic continuity. For a long time, offline meetings were the preferred way of engaging communities, with online participation often playing not much more than a...
Meet CitizenLab’s partners in Poland and Germany
Only three months ago we launched our global partnership programme. Today, we have 6 local partners who support us in shaping local democracies for the digital era. And we’re extremely proud of that! That’s...