Nordic Deliberation Learning Call: Where are all the democratic innovations?

Across the Nordic region, democratic innovation has grown rapidly in recent years. New
participatory and deliberative methods that enable citizens to contribute, deliberate and
shape their societies are emerging every day. Citizens assemblies, youth councils,
democratic competency building, community organizing, digital participation and many other
approaches are being developed and tested across municipalities, governments and civil
society.

Yet this vibrant growth has largely outpaced our collective oversight and understanding of
what these methods achieve. Participation is happening everywhere, but we lack a shared
conceptual understanding and overview of which method and tools that strengthens
democratic participation. We also lack a common language for understanding the democratic
impact, transferability and contribution to a stronger democratic society. Nordic Deliberation
is developing a practitioner-driven mapping of participatory methods across Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland. But we don’t
want to map from a distance. We want to build it with the people who are developing and
using these methods in their work.

In this Nordic Deliberation Learning Call, we invite practitioners, researchers, public servants
and democracy professionals to explore two questions together:
1. What participatory and deliberative methods are you developing and testing?
2. How can we build a stronger Nordic practice of participation?

We will briefly introduce our initial thinking on the project and present a few examples, before
opening a shared exploration of different methods and insights on their intended democratic
impact, and the conditions that enable or constrain their use and transferability.

The session is open to all and especially relevant for you if you are an academic, public
servant, democracy professional, civic tech practitioner or civil society actor working
with participation and democratic innovation in the Nordic region.