Losland

With the LOSLAND project, Mehr Demokratie and the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS Potsdam) accompanied municipalities all over Germany in shaping their grandchild-friendly future.

For this purpose, they selected ten municipalities and cities with motivated mayors who wanted to go new ways together with their inhabitants. The aim was to contribute to a more active and cooperative political culture. Together with politicians, administrators and local citizens, LOSLAND developed and planned customised participation processes and supported the municipalities in their implementation. Randomly selected citizens' assemblies offered a central approach for the design of the processes.

The starting point was the question:

How can we shape a future that is suitable for grandchildren here at home?

The local participation processes in the LOSLAND municipalities enabled citizens to contribute their perspectives and knowledge. As assemblies on the future, they considered how their communities can really become suitable for grandchildren. Now it's straight into implementation.

Map of democratic self-efficacy

In addition, LOSLAND created a platform for digital participation on site and for networking among the LOSLAND municipalities. The activated citizens, but also those responsible in politics and administration exchanged ideas and learned from and with each other.

The experiences and insights gained in the LOSLAND municipalities are combined to form a political mosaic: a map of democratic self-efficacy. With the help of media support, vitalising impulses are created for democracy throughout the country. The experiences on the ground result in recommendations for state and federal policy.

Together with the participating municipalities, LOSLAND shows ways to strengthen the possibilities for dealing with future issues in the local area.                     

Read more: LOSLAND