Projekt

NexCiCo implements a randomly selected next-generation citizens' council and determines its influence on the political climate. The place of implementation is a rural municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where a decision on the future of the local event hall is now pending after discord over recent infrastructure measures. The citizen council will act in an advisory capacity in this process and will become "next-generation" by being flanked by participatory tools such as "opinion machines" and social media exchange. The citizen council is organized by Initiative Offene Gesellschaft, an association specializing in innovative participation processes. The measures are being scientifically examined by GESIS, the central German infrastructure for social science survey data. GESIS will conduct surveys among all adult residents of the municipality, both before and after the implementation of the citizens' council. The local government is supporting the project. We expect to gain insights into the effect of a local citizen council on the political climate of a community. Can a compromise be found through a randomly selected, deliberative body that is supported by the population and by politics? Can disaffected citizens be won back for democracy? The lessons learned from the project will be recorded in a report and presented to political decision-makers in the region at an event at the end of the project.

• Dr. Sebastian Ziaja

  GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für
  Sozialwissenschaften
  Abteilung Survey Data Curation
  Team Survey Data Augmentation
  Köln
  

• Andreas Meinlschmidt

  Initiative Offene Gesellschaft e. V.
  Berlin
  

• Hannah Göppert

  Initiative Offene Gesellschaft e. V.
  Berlin