On the 20th of February, The Hannah Arendt Instituut hosted an informative webinar tailored for Speak Up partners, centered around the theme of "citizens' assemblies". Led by Nino Junius, a researcher from the university of Antwerp, the webinar took partners on a journey through the reasons, goals, and challenges of organizing citizens' assemblies.
The three goals of Citizens’ assemblies
The webinar focused on the three fundamental goals of citizen assemblies: dialogue, input, and co-construction. These goals vary in the level of participation from citizens and therefore also vary in difficulty to implement. However, the more difficult the goal, the higher the legitimacy effects towards effective participation. Challenges of organizing citizens assemblies were discussed, the webinar highlighted the importance of engaging in-depth with citizens. Residents hold the key to their own wishes, desires, and goals for the community, thus, their personal experiences are an important part of effective participation practices.
Transparancy is key
Moreover, the webinar highlighted the importance of transparent communication. The challenges of organizing citizen assemblies are: the degree of participants ownership, the balance between inclusion and debate, the balance between information and experts, accountability and follow-up and time pressure. These challenges get harder as the goal of assemblies move from dialogue to co-construction. Therefore, it is important to continue the conversation and create clarity between all parties on expectations, realistic goals and the division of roles.
This webinar gave new insights into forming Citizen Assemblies and was an opportunity for Speak Up partners to share ideas and experiences with each other in the beginning of the project.
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