Democratic Innovations Lab

Democratic Innovations Lab (DIL) focuses on innovative approaches to democratic participation and practices of deliberative democracy. The lab investigates methods such as mini-publics, participatory budgeting, and the use of new technologies to promote inclusive decision-making, improve governance, and strengthen democratic practices in contemporary societies.

DIL brings together RUG colleagues from different faculties and stakeholders to foster inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration. The initiative will cover a wide range of activities, such as public/private seminars, a summer/winter school on deliberative research methods, but also social activities to meet on a regular basis and foster cooperation.

Context

Over the past three decades, there has been growing attention paid to democratic experiments and innovations not only to overcome the growing trust divide between citizens and elected representatives, but also to improve political efficacy and reflect technological advances. Such experiments have taken different forms. Notable examples are citizens’ assemblies selected by lot, participatory budgeting and crowdsourced legislation, just to mention a few. Taken as an umbrella term, studies of ‘democratic innovations’ encapsulate interdisciplinary efforts to theorize and analyze how these once unconventional experiments can help overcome contemporary challenges.

Group Members

Dr. Stefan Couperus - European Politics & Society, Faculty of Arts. Interests: History of Modern Democratic Thought and Practice

Dr. Quirijn van den Hoogen - Research Centre Arts in Society. Interests: The role of Culture in Democracy and Sustainable Development

Dr. Davide Grossi - Bernoulli Institute for Maths, Computer Science and AI. Interests: Computational Social Choice; Algorithms & Democracy

Prof. David Langley - Digital Transformation & Strategy, Faculty of Economics and Business. Interests: Data spaces and data sovereignty; The link between organizations' digital business models and (democratic) sustainability.

Anna Mikhaylovskaya - PhD candidate, Campus Fryslân, Interests: Digital Democratic Innovations; Deliberation; Citizen Participation

Dr. Marc Pauly - Faculty of Philosophy

Dr. Élise Rouméas - Campus Fryslân. Interests: Digital Democratic Innovations; Compromise

Dr. Shaoni Wang, University College Groningen

Contact - Academic Lead

Prof. dr. Davide Grossi (Faculty of Science and Engineering)

Tel: 050 36 34547
E-mail: d.grossi@rug.nl

Last modified:

18 July 2024 10.29 a.m.

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