Expert Workshop

Citizen Participation Practices in 21st-Century Liberal Democracies

Co-organised by Cristina Eckes (Universiteit van Amsterdam) & Irthe De Jong (UvA/ULB)

 

Hosted at  Institut d’études européennes – Université libre de Bruxelles (IEE-ULB) / 39, avenue F.D. Roosevelt B-1050 Brussels (BELGIUM)

This expert workshop aims to trace whether and how citizen participation, both in the EU and in the national context, may embody and express dissenting voices and dissensus. Particular attention is paid to citizen participation in correlation with tensions that the expression of dissensus could create between national and EU actors. The focus is three policy areas, namely climate change; migration and asylum; and LGBTQI+ as areas that are deeply rights-relevant both on an individual and community level, that are subject to a high level of disagreement and public contestation across the EU, and that are continuously but also recently subject to law-making, both in terms of regulation and judicial decisions.

The objective of the workshop is to advance the theoretical and practical aspects of citizen participation as a necessary toolkit of democratic action which can also address the shortcomings of current institutional representation structures. Tot his end it will host three topical roundtables at the IEE-ULB in Brussels on Tuesday the 25th of June (10:30am – 5:00pm).

SCHEDULE (see programme HERE)

13:30 – 15:00            Panel 2: Participation in policy-making in asylum/migration in the national and EU context                                                                                                                                                                   Chair: TBC