D2.1 Sound Practices of Democratic Innovations

In the perspective of the European Green Deal (EGD), the deliverable “Sound Practices of
Democratic Innovations” has achieved a comprehensive collective study that give the basis
for the further development of the PHOENIX project. The two figures below describe the
general project sequence and the role of this deliverable within it.
It provides a critical analysis of the basic concepts of the PHOENIX research (Part 1). This
Part begins with the six challenges at the core of our proposal: time frame; complexity;
scale, cooperation between stakeholders; conflict and deliberation; and trust (Section 1.1.).
It further discusses the four democratic goods that were at the core of our proposal in the
grant agreement: inclusiveness, popular control, considered judgment and transparency
(Section 1.2.). It clarifies the idea of a tangram as a participatory and deliberative system,
that is a system in which different methodologies and tools are coordinated in order to
improve participation in a specific context with the EGD in mind (see Section 1.3.). A specific
development has tackled the issue of societies and nature interdependencies in democratic
innovations that aim to foster the ecological transition (Section 1.4.). Another specific
development focusses on the issue of RRIs (Section 1.5.).
The deliverable also provides a critical analysis of four main participatory and deliberative
methodologies which had been already developed by practitioners (initially mostly in
isolation from one another) (Part 2), in four sections: Participatory budgeting (2.1.), citizens’
assemblies (2.2), public debate (2.3), mixed councils and assemblies (2.4).
In addition, it presents some of the tools that will constitute basic elements of the tangrams
(Part 3). A tool refers to different devices within a consolidated methodology or a
participatory experience. Three of these tools are presented in more depth in three
Sections: trust (3.1.), ICT (3.2.), and mapping (3.3).
Last but not least, the analysis of the case studies tackles a number of tools, challenges, and
democratic goods in specific contexts (Part 4), ordered in four sections corresponding to
the four methodologies: Participatory budgeting (4.1.), citizens’ assemblies (4.2), public
debate (4.3), mixed councils and assemblies (4.4).