Events

Location: Tom-Pauls-Theater, Am Markt 3, 01796 Pirna

At the conference "Building Bridges - More Dialogue in Times of Crisis" on 1 and 2 June 2023, bridges are to be built. One of the topics discussed will be how bridges can be built in conflict-laden dialogues in a way that retains their value and is sustainable.

One topic: Citizens' assemblies as an instrument of dialogue using the example of the COVID-19 crisis - Using the example of the mini publics on the COVID-19 pandemic, which were carried out in Baden-Württemberg and Saxony, the opportunities and limitations of this instrument will be examined in more detail.

The Saxon State Chancellery cordially invites you to this event and to the annual meeting of the Alliance for Diverse Democracy in Pirna. The event will also serve as a meeting of the Saxon experience and advisory network for civic participation.

The organisers would like to get into conversation with you, discuss new projects and findings and also jointly award the media prize of the Alliance for Diverse Democracy.

Learn more

Location: Zoom video conferencing platform,

Citizens' assemblies, or sortition-based participation formats, are increasingly establishing themselves as a desirable and successful democratic innovation. The Bundestag will hold three national citizens' assemblies in this legislative period, and there are now a large number of such projects at municipal and state level.

With the series of events ""Thinking Democracy: How to Continue with Solicited Participation?", the association "Es geht LOS" took stock of the situation from January to May 2023: On 2 June 2023, the organisers will look back: What have we learned? Which insights can be integrated as standards into future work with sortition-based participation formats and how can these be embedded in the political system?

A look back at the lessons learned and develop visions and concrete steps for the future of sortition-based participation.

Location: Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3, Canada

What is the Future of Representative Democracy? Authoritarian populist candidates are winning power in democracies across the globe and threatening to undermine the very institutions of representative democracy that helped them rise to power.

Alongside these troubling trends is a quiet, transformative deepening of democracy as legacy institutions of electoral representative democracy (such as elections, political parties, and legislatures) are increasingly being supplemented with new processes such as citizen juries, citizens’ assemblies, and more representative forms of townhall meetings for engaging citizen participation in deliberation and decision-making.

Dr. Mark Warren, UBC Professor Emeritus and Former Merilees Chair in the Study of Democracy at UBC will address these questions in his public lecture, “Democratic Innovation and Representative Democracy.”

Location: Zoom video conferencing platform,

Citizens’ Assemblies (CAs) are flourishing around the world because many actors seek to reinvigorate democracy with citizen participation and deliberation; and CAs are expected to have the potential to meet this twofold objective.

However, despite deliberative and inclusive qualities of CAs, many questions remain open. The increasing popularity of CAs call for a holistic reflection and evaluation on their origins, current uses and future directions.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies showcases the state of the art around the study of CAs and opens novel perspectives informed by multidisciplinary research and renewed thinking about deliberative participatory processes. It discusses the latest theoretical, empirical, and methodological scientific developments on CAs and offers a unique resource for scholars, decision-makers, practitioners, and curious citizens to better understand the qualities, purposes, promises but also pitfalls of CAs.

This event features the book launch of Handbook Citizens' Assemblies edited by Min Reuchamps, Julien Vrydagh and Yanina Welp.

Location: VHS Schwerte, Am Markt 11, 58239 Schwerte

Everyone is talking about randomly selected citizens' assemblies. Their promise: they represent a cross-section of the population and thus also bring those voices into the political debate that are otherwise willingly ignored. Seven citizens' assemblies have already been held nationwide. These councils meet for a limited period of time and then draw up recommendations on a specific topic, which they then present to the politicians.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, too, there is already experience with sortition procedures: for example in Bochum, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Coesfeld, Erkelenz, Gütersloh, Jülich and Oberhausen. In Schwerte, citizens' councils are also an issue.

Why do we need a reform of democracy? How does a citizens' assembly work? Citizens' assembly expert Thorsten Sterk from Mehr Demokratie will discuss these and other questions with Bianca Dausend (CDU), Sigrid Reihs (SPD) and Marco Sorg (Greens). A subsequent, lively discussion in this event of the VHS Schwerte is expressly desired.

Location: Zoom video conferencing platform,

In Germany, the number of local citizens' assemblies is growing, as are the number of initiatives to establish them. Active members of these initiatives meet monthly online to exchange experiences and ideas.

The main topic of the networking meeting on 9 June 2023 is: Implementation of citizens' assembly recommendations

The recommendations for policy action that arise in citizens' assemblies are formally non-binding. They do not have to be implemented by political decision-makers. This makes a good implementation process all the more important. What can such a process look like and what needs to be taken into account?

Pauline Uhrmeister presents the implementation processes at the nine LOSLAND citizens' juries. Kira Hoffmann from the initiative "Citizens' Assembly Freiburg Region" will report on the implementation experiences and lessons learned from the citizens' assembly "100 % renewable energy Freiburg Region".

Please send your registrations to info@buergerrat.de

Location: Zoom video conferencing platform,

Help the Knowlege Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) improve the evaluation of the impact of climate assemblies! This workshop will review the Impact Evaluation Framework created by the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) in collaboration with KNOCA in early 2022. The Framework aims to identify the diversity of potential impacts of climate assemblies and the challenges and opportunities of evaluating these impacts.

The first version of the Impact Evaluation Framework has been applied in a number of settings and has been reviewed by a number of KNOCA members with experience in evaluation. 

The workshop will consider the original motivations behind the Framework, experience of using it in the field, and proposals for how it might be further developed. A revised version will be published following the workshop.

The workshop is aimed particularly at practitioners, evaluators and researchers interested in understanding the impact of climate assemblies. 

Location: University of Erfurt, Lecture Hall 5, Teaching Building 2, Nordhäuser Str. 63, 99089 Erfurt

While there is never a lack of criticism of the current state of representative democracy, ideas for its reform or even reinvention are rarer - and even rarer are attempts to simply do democracy differently. But things are on the move: In recent years, civil society actors in particular have formulated ideas, given impulses or built tools that challenge or revitalise the institutions of representative democracy. Digital technologies are often the starting point of these approaches: They change participation experiences and expectations, make it easier to try out and redesign, and succeed in involving many who think they are not interested in politics.

The panel discussion offers the chance to meet and discuss with some of the most important movers and shakers in the field of digital democratic civil society and their ideas: Juliane Baruck (Hallo Bundestag / Es geht LOS), Gregor Hackmack (innn.it / Abgeordnetenwatch), Moritz Ritter (Liquid Democracy) and Katja Jäger (betterplace lab). The discussion will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Thorsten Thiel.

Learn more

Location: Zoom video conferencing platform,

Democracy can be made much smarter. Much smarter than what our current system of government, even enriched with citizens assemblies, can deliver. That's why The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance will be published on June 22th, 2023.

Join this event to learn interactively the core principles governing Collective Intelligence for faster change in government with some of the Handbook's key authors. Discuss the principles bilaterally with the authors. Meet fellow change makers from around the world in speed dating mode.

Top contributors of the Handbook will share their expertise: Pr. Geoff Mulgan, Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation, University College London, UK; Dr. Carina Antonia Hallin, Collective Intelligence Research Group, IT University of Copenhagen (ITU), Denmark; Dr. Lex Paulson, UM6P School of Collective Intelligence, Morocco; Dr. Paolo Spada, Comparative Politics, University of Southampton, UK; Stephen Boucher, Dreamocracy & Smarter Together, Sciences Po, ULB and CIFE.

Location: Centre Marc Bloch, Simmel-Saal, Friedrichstr. 191, 10117 Berlin

As part of the Conference on the Future of Europe, randomly selected citizens' panels discussed the future of the European Union in order to jointly formulate recommendations. The question was how the EU should evolve to meet future challenges. The citizens' panels debated ideas from events across the EU as well as suggestions submitted via the conference website. The resulting recommendations were discussed with the EU institutions and other stakeholders.

Dr. Daniela Heimpel bietet einen Einblick in die EU-Zukunftskonferenz. Daniela Heimpel is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch. Her current research project focuses on citizen participation in Europe. In particular, she is interested in the and the "new generation" of European Citizens' Panels.

Anmeldungen bitte an mathias.delori@cmb.hu-berlin.de

Location: Youth Hostel Cologne-Deutz, Siegesstr. 5, 50679 Cologne

Under the title "More courage for citizen participation. Opportunities - Approaches - Good Examples", the participants of the annual meeting of the Citizen Participation Network will discuss how participation can be more firmly anchored in the practice of politics and administration as well as in the everyday life of residents.

• How can we succeed in making participation a natural component of social decision-making?
• How can we convince politicians, administrators and residents that citizen participation makes sense?
• Where are the opportunities - and how can we overcome existing obstacles, resistance and reservations?

Together, the participants will discuss (new) approaches to strengthening citizen participation in society, politics and administration. Good examples offer starting points for further developing ideas and new perspectives for action to shape citizen participation. One topic: Monitoring the implementation of Citizens' Assembly recommendations

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Location: EineWeltHaus, Schwanthalerstr. 80 80336 Munich

This training camp from 19 - 21 June 2023 is a comprehensive seminar for current and future organisers of citizens' assemblies worldwide. It is aimed at members of organisations and groups as well as individuals who are interested in designing and running citizens' assemblies - with or without previous experience.

In the training camp you will learn how to organise a mini public according to the latest state of Design Thinking. Besides the practical aspects of a citizens' council process, it is also about values and principles that inspire it.

During the training camp, participants dive into the "what", "why" of preparing and running citizens' assemblies. It is about democratic thinking, mini public standards and guiding principles, governance structures, roles, procedures, issue selection, the design of the meeting, publicity for citizens' assemblies and the process of implementing the recommendations of randomly selected bodies.

Your trainers are Marcin Gerwin and Zuzanna Nowak from the Center for Blue Democracy. Participation in the seminar is free of charge.

Location: Zoom video conferencing platform,

The Global Assembly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency was a pioneering civil society-led initiative. It was the world’s first citizens’ assembly that brought together 100 randomly selected citizens from around the globe to deliberate on the topic: ‘how can humanity address the climate and ecological crisis in a fair and effective way?’

For 68 hours over 11 weeks, Assembly Members listened to expert evidence, exchanged their views in facilitated small group deliberations and plenary sessions, and developed the People’s Declaration for the Sustainable Future of Planet Earth, first disseminated at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. The Assembly aimed to set an institutional precedent for bringing the voices of ordinary citizens to multilateral negotiations, a space where they are largely absent.

The Evaluation Report examines the extent to which the Global Assembly upheld principles of good practice in the process design, deliberative experience, and impact.

Learn more

Location: Zoom video conferencing platform,

Citizens' assemblies are booming: there have been around 80 procedures in Germany alone in recent years. They exist in big France as well as in small Vorarlberg in Austria. Ireland has shown how citizens can find solutions to long-standing conflicts. In September 2023, the first nationwide citizens' assembly officially mandated by the Bundestag will begin.

From Baden-Württemberg to Thuringia, six state governments have already committed to holding mini publics at the state level in their coalition agreements. But what about Bavaria? Ahead of the state elections on 8 October 2023, the NGO "Mehr Demokratie" invites people to look into citizens' assemblies and campaign for democracy by sortition at the state level.

State director Jan Renner will explain what experiences have been made with citizens' assemblies so far and what the state of affairs is in Bavaria. Former assembly participants will report on their experiences. And Mehr Demokratie will show how you can get involved in citizens' assemblies in Bavaria.

To register, please send an email to bayern@mehr-demokratie.de

Location: Zoom video conferencing platform,

In this Annual Event of the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) the participants celebrate the European Climate Assembly experiences. In a packed program, they will be reflecting on the question “Can climate assemblies be integrated more effectively into our political systems so that their impacts on climate governance are more robust and sustained?“, pinpointing hard dilemmas and reaching out to new arenas of innovating Climate Assemblies.  

In the company of exiting keynote speakers, new and old Climate Assembly stakeholders and all the KNOCA members our KNOCA chair Graham Smith will take the participants through the afternoon underlining the present and the future state of Climate Assemblies.

Background: Climate action through citizens' assemblies?

Location: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Field "Political Theory and Public Policy", Jakob-Welder-Weg 12, 55128 Mainz

From 21 to 23 June 2023, the Institute of Political Science in cooperation with the Mainz Centre for Empirical Research on Democracy and Interdisciplinary Public Policy Mainz will hold a workshop on "Against Lottocracy". Registration at theorie@politik.uni-mainz.de is requested.

Further information can be found under this link

Location: Flagey, Place Sainte-Croix, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

Deliberative democracy is on the rise, and it's time to harness its potential for a stronger European democracy. FIDE, a leading organization guiding and advising on the implementation of citizens' assemblies, invites you to join this landmark event. Together, we will delve into the intricacies of citizens-led decision-making and explore how these methods allow for more effective policy outcomes whilst building societal trust.

Engage in captivating discussions, gain valuable insights, and contribute to the advancement of deliberative democracy. Network with NGOs, civil servants, politicians, and other stakeholders passionate about democratic innovations. Be a part of the movement that places citizens at the heart of European politics.

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Location: Werksviertel-Mitte München / WERK7 Theater & Technikum, Speicherstr. 22, 81671 Munich

Filter Bubble, Woke Bubble, Fashion Bubble, Insta, TikTok, Twitter Bubble... We all often bubble blindly and let it stop us from thinking outside the box and seeing other people's perspectives. In doing so, we not only miss out on contact and exchange with people from other realities of life, but also a bunch of exciting stories, ideas and experiences.

The TEDxYouth@Munich Festival on 22 June 2023 is about bursting our bubbles and hotly discussing current, controversial or hidden topics from the fields of pop culture, lifestyle, technologies, sexuality, violence & crime, politics and activism. Participants will experiment together and find new solutions for a better future!

Mehr Demokratie Bayern will offer a workshop on citizens' assemblies and youth participation and will be represented with an information stand.

The entrance ticket costs 5€. Besides inspiring speeches and motivating workshops, there will also be live music.

Location: Parc des Expositions de Rouen, 46 Av. des Canadiens, 76120 Le Grand-Quevilly, France

The French city of Rouen will host the 7th European Conference on Citizen Participation in 2023. What participants can expect:

Monday 26 June, afternoon: the city offers visits and guided tours to discover the city, its actors and inspiring initiatives.

Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 June: Conference at the Parc des Expositions de Rouen. Two days of workshops, debates and new, innovative formats...

Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 July: The conference continues with several online seminars and digital workshops.

Location: Plattform V Space, Färbergasse 15, 6850 Dornbirn, Austria

The Advanced Seminar on Dynamic Facilitation is specifically for already experienced Dynamic Facilitators. It is a great opportunity to further educate yourself and gain even deeper insights into this particular method. Through practical exercises, reflection and discussions, existing knowledge is deepened and consolidated. The seminar offers an opportunity to exchange with other professionals and learn from each other.

The seminar focuses in particular on the special attitude that a facilitator should adopt in order to ensure the best possible cooperation between the participants. In doing so, it is important to create an atmosphere of trust and openness to enable genuine togetherness. The core of Dynamic Facilitation, Choice-Creating, is also dealt with intensively. This is about creating a space for completely new approaches and possibilities, in which creative ideas and solutions are born, based on real transformation. Freely according to the motto: "Deciding was yesterday, today we find new solutions!"

Location: Diocesan Council of Catholics, Schrammerstr. 3, 80333 Munich

In many situations it is necessary to make joint decisions, whether in the family, at the workplace, in a voluntary role or in citizens' assemblies. "Systemic consensus is a new, forward-looking tool that can be used to reach a result that can be implemented in a very short time, even in difficult situations involving several people. This workshop will look at the decision-making process itself and the methods that are used.

Systemic consensus-building is a holistic approach which

• understands objections and concerns as potential
• can handle both a large number of participants and a wide range of proposed solutions
• leads equally to sustainable results and a relaxed atmosphere
• can be easily combined with the often prescribed majority decision-making process
• can be supported by digital tools, if desired

Information & Registration

Location: Berlin, Venue follows

Since March 2023 and until June 2024, a unique experiment in democracy has been taking place in six constituencies across Germany. The Hello Bundestag project wants to find out how citizens' assemblies can strengthen the exchange between politics and people and thus our tried and tested representative democracy.

For this purpose, a total of 18 citizens' assemblies will take place in three project phases at constituency level (so-called "constituency days"), in which 25 - 35 randomly selected people will discuss various issues for one day. The results are then discussed with the MPs sitting in the Bundestag for that constituency.

The organisers of Es geht LOS cordially invite you to look back on the first phase and thus the first six constituency days on the topic "Our constituency, our Bundestag - How do we strengthen the relationship between people and politics?

Location: Paul-Löbe-Haus, Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 1, 10557 Berlin

On 29 September 2023, the first Citizens' Assembly officially established by the German Bundestag will begin. The topic: "Nutrition in Transition: Between Private Concerns and State Responsibilities".

The Citizens' Assembly will begin on 29 September 2023. It is to focus on the changes in nutrition already taking place in everyday life and bring the citizens' perspective into the political debate. Particular attention will be paid to the role of the state in the area of tension between individual freedom and responsibility for society.

On 21 July 2023, the participants of the Citizens' Assembly will be randomly selected by Bundestag President Bärbel Bas at a public event. The random selection will be broadcast live on Bundestag.de.

Learn more: Citizens' Assembly "Nutrition in Transition"

Location: Phil.-Theol. Hochschule Brixen, Annimi De Monte Oberrauch, Seminarplatz 4, 39042 Brixen, Italy

It is a paradox: In many countries, a decline in voter turnout can be observed in elections, but populist parties are on the rise, political debates are polarising, cross-party understanding is made more difficult by "bubbles" and "fake news".

A challenge for democracy: what are the ways of shaping political opinion today? What does political engagement look like in the 21st century? Where is the fine line between desirable participation and problematic agitation? In short: How can democracy succeed?

Registration by 31 August 2023 at the latest to: Annimi De Monte Oberrauch: Tel.: +39 472 271120, sekretariat@pthsta.it

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Location: Heidberg Kloster, Bahnhofstr. 4, 4700 Eupen, Belgium

The G1000 Autumn School on deliberative democracy. This means two days of in-depth learning and informal exchanges with world leading experts and people involved in deliberative processes on the ground. In Eupen, the beating heart of Ostbelgien model of citizens' assemblies.
 
This training is designed for civil servants, politicians, academics, practitioners, or members of civil society organisations, working on a deliberative process with randomly selected citizens to improve inclusion in policy-making.

Programme and speakers will be announced here soon.

Location: Paul Löbe House, Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 1, 10557 Berlin

On 29 September 2023, the Citizens' Assembly "Nutrition in Transition" will begin its work. It is the first nationwide citizens' assembly to be officially established by the Bundestag.

The randomly selected mini public is to focus on the upheavals in nutrition that are already taking place in everyday life and to bring the citizens' perspective into the political debate. Particular attention is to be paid to the role of the state in the area of tension between individual freedom and responsibility for society.

Bundestag President Bärbel Bas will open the first session of the Citizens' Assembly at this public event. The event will be broadcast live on Bundestag.de.

Learn more: Citizens' Assembly "Nutrition in Transition"

Location: Democracy Garage, Rentemestervej 57, 2400 Copenhagen, Denmark

Once a year, deliberative democracy experts from around the world come together to share ideas, spread knowledge, meet new people and renew existing relationships at Democracy R&D's annual conference. In 2023, the conference will take place in Copenhagen on 4 - 5 October (possibly complemented by pre- and post-conference events on 3 and 6 October).

Further information follows

About Democracy R&D

Location: Hotel Rantapuisto, Furuborginkatu 3, 00980 Helsinki, Finland

As an international non-profit organization dedicated to the participation of everyday citizens in policy-making. FIDE is organising a new iteration of its Autumn School for policy-makers looking to learn and broaden their understanding of Deliberative Democracy and Citizens’ Assemblies.

Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, is partnering with FIDE to bring the deliberative wave to the Nordic countries and provide local expertise. It aims to inspire politicians, civil servants and society actors through know-how and tangible case studies to implement these processes in their spheres of action.

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Location: V Space, Rhomberg-Areal, Färbergasse 15, 6850 Dornbirn, Austria

Dynamic Facilitation is an openly facilitated group discussion with a flexible number of participants, ideally between 8 and 20. The method builds on the creativity of the participants to find a solution and deliberately distances itself from conventional, linear facilitation structures. Dynamic Facilitation is particularly suitable for issues where the problem definition, the possible solutions and the concerns about these solutions already arouse emotions in the participants.

In this three-day seminar, participants will deal intensively with this unique facilitation method and learn how we can apply it successfully in different contexts - from the corporate sector to the broad field of citizen participation to 1:1 coaching.

The application of Dynamic Facilitation in citizens' assemblies is particularly exciting. In this seminar, the participants will therefore also deal intensively with the application of Dynamic Facilitation in such mini publics and learn the special attitude and skills of facilitation that are necessary for successful implementation.

Location: WebEx video conferencing platform,

Everyone is talking about randomly selected citizens' assemblies. Their promise: they represent a cross-section of the population and thus also bring those voices into the political debate that are otherwise gladly ignored. Citizens' assemblies meet for a limited period of time and then draw up recommendations on a specific topic, which they then hand over to the politicians.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, too, there is already experience with sortition procedures: for example in Bonn, Düsseldorf, Coesfeld, Erkelenz, Gütersloh, Jülich and Cologne.

Aachen is the first German municipality with a permanent citizens' assembly. This means that, unlike other mini publics, the citizens' assembly there has a legal basis and a permanent organisational structure. What does permanent citizens' assembly mean, what is the first balance sheet in Aachen and are there noticeable changes? These questions will be addressed at the Open.NRW Coffee Lecture.

Speakers: Thorsten Sterk (Mehr Demokratie) and Gereon Hermens (Initiative "Citizens Assembly for Aachen")

More information will follow.

Location: Hamburg, Venue follows

Dynamic Facilitation is an openly facilitated group discussion with a flexible number of participants. The method builds on the creativity of the participants to find a solution and deliberately distances itself from conventional, linear facilitation structures. Dynamic Facilitation is particularly suitable for questions where the problem definition, the possible solutions and the concerns about these solutions already evoke emotions in the participants.

During this three-day seminar, you will learn how to create an open and appreciative atmosphere in groups that allows participants to express their individual perspectives and ideas while developing creative and transformative solutions together. You will learn how to develop the ability to facilitate a group while responding individually to the needs of the participants.

The seminar is aimed at anyone who wants to be able to work more effectively with groups, whether in business, education or community work. Previous experience in facilitation is not necessary.

Location: Video conferencing platform Cisco Webex Meeting,

Citizen participation has become an integral part of urban development policy. But who gets involved? Is it often "always the same people", some of whom are very well informed and represent their interests? How can other voices be heard? This is where the Citizens' Council breaks new ground.

In the Citizens' Assembly, a randomly selected representative group of urban society discusses issues in moderated small groups with the aim of formulating joint recommendations. These serve, for example, as a basis for subsequent political decisions. In the citizens' assembly, mostly complex issues with great importance for the public are discussed.

This webinar will provide you with practical knowledge about what a citizens' assembly is and how you can conduct one. Using concrete examples from the speakers' practical experience, you will work together on what to look out for and which pitfalls to avoid.

Learn more

Location: University of Canberra, Building 11, Bruce ACT 2617, Australia

We live in a time of global challenges including the climate emergency, pandemics and populism. Deliberative democracy leads the way towards mending and transtorming soci eties. It inspires us to listen to tellow citizens and to nature Deliberative transtormations build the path towards democratic and sustainable futures.

The 6th Deliberative Democracy Summer School from 7 to 9 February 2024 brings together postgraduate students and early career researchers with leading scholars in the field. It provides a unique opportunity o discuss emerging themes, empirical findings and methodological innovations in deliberative democracy research.

Participants will have the opportunity to present their work on a wide range of topics including - but not limited to - deliberative systems, mini-publics, social movements, transnational deliberation. non-human deliberation and feminist and decolonial deliberation

Participation is free of charge. Limited financial support tor overseas travel is available.