On 2 October 2024, Prof. Iwona Sagan and Dr Maja Grabkowska represented the UG team at the conference ‘Cities as Drivers of Deliberative and Participatory Democracy in Europe’ summarising the EUARENAS project. They were accompanied by a member of the Community of Practice project working group, Dr.-Ing. arch. Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska from the Department of Spatial Studies. The meeting took place in Berlin’s Europäisches Haus on Unter den Linden.

The aim of the conference was to present and discuss the results of almost four years of research and action on participatory and deliberative practices in European cities. The event brought together activists, practitioners, citizens, policy makers and representatives of local, national and European government to share their experiences, questions and challenges in integrating participation and deliberation into democratic processes at the local level in Europe.

The main question that guided the conference was: how to foster active citizenship, social agendas and political life through civic participation and democratic innovation in European cities?

The meeting was opened by the project coordinator, Prof. James Scott from the University of Eastern Finland, who then handed over the floor to the hostess of the venue, Manica Hauptman from the European Commission Representation in Germany. The first panel focused on the added value of participatory and deliberative practices, with speakers including policy analyst Anna Paola Quaglia from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Afterwards, the experiences of the cities involved in the project pilot were presented by Dr Krisztina Keresztély from the Comparative Research Network. Next, invited participants and participants in these activities from Gdansk, Reggio Emilia and Võru shared their own reflections on the subject. We also had the opportunity to play a game prepared by Lukács Hayes and Giovanni Pagano of Eutropian, authors of the project’s Experimental Methods of Participation Toolbox.

The next panel of the conference focused on the research and activities carried out in the four leading components of the project – Theory, Case Studies, Piloting, Foresight. Their coordinators – Dr Wojciech Ufel from SWPS, Dr Maja Grabkowska, Dr Krisztina Keresztély from CRN and Sarah Henderson from People’s Voice Media – talked about the research results of their teams, addressing three issues. The first concerned the main barriers to integrating participatory democracy methods into mainstream local governance. The second referred to ways of overcoming these barriers and creating the conditions for the desired change. The third, on the other hand, covered the challenges that emerged from the implementation of the project. The panellists’ statements were followed by a discussion with the audience.

After the lunch break, we heard from Michal Zorena of the City of Gdansk on the URBACT project’s objectives for involving local government officials and women more fully in supporting innovation in the public sector and promoting civic engagement. Next, Prof. Mikko Rask from the University of Helsinki presented the findings of the implemented participatory project Co-Creation Radar, which aims to involve male and female residents in decision-making processes using tools supported by artificial intelligence. This part of the conference was concluded by a panel with a representative from LUISS University, who outlined the recommendations resulting from their research conducted as part of the project. The conference was the last opportunity for the full project consortium to meet. At the end, all the attendees thanked the project coordinator, Prof. James Scott, to which our entire team joins, hoping to continue the scientific collaboration in the near future.

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