|
|
| Ligne 1 : |
Ligne 1 : |
| ===EN===
| |
| I work as an independent moderator and facilitator for debat, (socratic) dialogue and conference, mainly in the Netherlands, Belgium and the Baltic States. (my wife is from Estonia). In 2014 I was initiator of the first {{E|Citizens Summit}} in my home town Amsterdam. (www.burgertop-amsterdam.nl). I am a board member of the {{O|Dutch Moderators Association}} and active in the {{O|Dutch Association of Journalists}}.
| |
|
| |
|
| Some words about this Citizens Summit: On the 6th of June last year 250 Amsterdammers came together to work out plans for a better, more just and more {{C|inclusive city}}. It was a long struggle to get this Summit off the ground, mainly because the political culture in the city is very inward-focused. But with the help of over a hundred volunteers we succeeded and the participants worked out 60 concrete plans in one day, trough a deliberative proces at 35 round tables. (If you are interested, I wrote a paper on the Summit called '{{W|Dismantling the Theatre of Democracy’}} in Estonian publication Ehituskunst, you can download it here as pdf: http://www.bartcosijn.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Ehituskunst_2016_Bart-Cosijn.pdf)
| |
|
| |
| In many places and cities, I experience a great willingness of ordinary citizens to invest personal time in their community. On the other hand, I am deeply worried that the willingness to participate in formal local (representative) democracies in Europe is very low. In Amsterdam the turnout in local elections is just over 50%, in some boroughs even less than 40%. New deliberative practices, online and offline, are emerging. But party-politics and elections-cycles are very dominant in our democratic systems. We need each other to {{C|redefine the democratic and public domain}}, to make it more open, more inclusive, more common and less politicized.
| |
|
| |
| {{BIO}}
| |
