Technologies of the Democratic City: D-CENT final event in Madrid
www.nesta.org.uk/blog/technologies-of-the-democratic-city-d-cent-final-event-in-madrid/
www.nesta.org.uk/blog/technologies-of-the-democratic-city-d-cent-final-event-in-madrid/
To showcase and celebrate the results of the D-CENT project a week-long programme of activity is taking place in Madrid including a Democracy lab and International conference.
D-CENT (Decentralised Citizens ENgagement Technologies) is the biggest European project on direct democracy and citizen engagement. It is a radical experimental project to promote new wave of democratic innovation and re-energise democracy, by supporting large scale pilots and research on network democracy and collective intelligence in new political parties, new forms of citizen participation, Internet as common good and the governance of digital commons.
The International Conference in Madrid, organised as part of the Commons technology and the right to a democratic city event taking place from the 23–28 May, will conclude the week’s activities that begin with a five-day Democracy Lab offering a wide range of hands-on training, workshops, hackathons and a two-day unconference, which will have presentations selected via open call.
Together we will dive into new ways of strengthening citizens’ participation in the political process presenting successful projects, practices and digital tools for a more participatory democracy, future digital city infrastructures and data commons, public policies, and struggles for a democratic and commons-based city.
Our discussions will start from the assumption that institutions are in great need of revival since they are out of synchronisation with the 21st century technologies, norms and collective aspirations. They haven’t been able to respond and adapt to the new technologies of participation, transparency and proximity, which for instance Spanish citizens demanded since the big wave of the 15-M indignados movement in 2011 that radically changed Spanish politics. New democratic popular movements have been able to interpret this societal discontent that has expressed outside of traditional political parties.
The crisis of political representation and legitimacy of current institutions, corruption and tax evasion scandals that unveiled the major political parties' complicity with private interest, and the public disaffection with politics can be addressed by reinventing and reactivating political participation, with concrete proposals to devolve greater control and power to citizens and to transition towards democratic alternatives and commons-based technologies that have citizens' rights at the core.
This new politics represents a different idea of democracy that cannot only be reduced to a simple vote for your representatives once every few years. But those citizens' deliberative assemblies, the protests in the squares, and self-organisation of communities, people debating online, are the real participatory democracy currently missing in the system.
There is one common denominator that binds the conference speakers, namely that they are in many ways activists and pioneers that have revolutionised democracy in the past years, and are rethinking technology and shaping public policy to devolve power to the people.
The conference will cover the following themes in different sessions:
The speakers include:
Julian Assange, Wikileaks | Francesca Bria, D-CENT | Fabrizio Sestini, European Commission | Raquel Rolnik, University of São Paulo | Manuela Carmena, Mayor of Madrid | Paul Mason, The Guardian | Evgeny Morozov, author and editorialist | Francesco “Bifo” Berardi, writer and philosopher | Carlos Prieto del Campo, Museo Reina Sofia | Renata Avila, Web We Want Foundation | Pablo Soto, Madrid City Council | Sergio Amadeu de Silveira, Professor, Federal University of ABC | Adam Greenfield, writer and urbanist | and many more…browse the full list
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