ORGANIZATION

PLDP

February 27, 2023 raphael.kies
February 23, 2023 raphael.kies
February 22, 2023 raphael.kies

The Platform of Participatory Democracy in Luxembourg (PLDP) aims to strengthen the participatory projects of the City of Dudelange (as a pilot city) to take stock and promote participatory democracy projects in Luxembourg.

Mission and Purpose

Developing synergies

PLDP’s ambition is to establish a national and international network around the issues of participatory democracy in Luxembourg in order to create synergies with institutional and non-institutional actors interested in following or developing participatory projects.

Collaboration with the city of Dudelange

One of the central missions of the platform is to follow and analyse the existing participative projects – particularly the Biergerrot (Citizens’ Council) and the panel of citizens – and to support the upcoming projects, in particular the introduction of the participative budget planned in 2022.

Dissemination of knowledge

The platform also aims to highlight participatory projects developed in Luxembourg at the institutional and civil society level. To this end, it collaborates with the ETICC asbl in the framework of the Open Government Partnership.

Research projects

PLDP aims to initiate and follow up research projects that are developed at – or in collaboration with – the University of Luxembourg in different disciplines (in particular political science, geography, computer science, media studies).

Promoting training

Training is also ensured around the course on democratic innovations, the organization of conferences, as well as the organization of the summer school “Participation and Democracy”, organized by the University of Luxembourg, the Free University of Brussels, Laval University and the Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux.

Origins and Development

The platform of participatory democracy was created following the collaboration agreement concluded between the University of Luxembourg and the City of Dudelange in December 2020. It aims firstly to evaluate and strengthen the participatory projects of the City of Dudelange (as a pilot city) and secondly to take stock and promote participatory democracy projects in the whole country.

Organizational Structure, Membership, and Funding

The project is coordinated by Dr. Raphaël Kies and Ekaterina Chirkova from the Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, University of Luxembourg.

The other members are:

Dr. Emilien Paulis

Dr. Stéphanie Lukasik

Ms. Lisa verhasselt (PhD Candidate)

Ms. Nino  Sharashidze (PhD Candidate)

M. Albert Barseghyan (student)

Specializations, Methods and Tools

The platform is specialized in the evaluation of democratic innovations and on the transformation of the media landscape

  • survey
  • minipublics
  • focus groups
  • interviews

Major Projects and Events

  • Supporting Dudelange as "pilot city" in the field of participatory democracy
  • Klima Biergerrot: Evaluation of the citizens assembly on climate change (collaboration with the Ministry of State)
  • Biergerkommitee Lëtzebuerg 2050: Evaluation of citizens assembly in the context of the project Luxembourg in transition (Collaboration with Ministry of Energy and Spatial Planning)
  • Introducing and evaluating smartwielen, the Luxembourgish voting advice application for national and european elections (collaboration with Zentrum fir Politesh Bildung)
  • Medialux: evaluation of the media landscape in Luxembourg (Collaboration with the Ministry of State - sevice media et communication)
  • E-petitions: evaluation of the e-petition in Luxembourg and abroad.