Theme table civil society

Under the moderation of Dr. Brigitte Reiser (civil society expert from Stuttgart), the theme table "Digital participation in the neighbourhood - is civil society being left behind?" looked at the importance of associations, initiatives and committed individuals for digital democracy.

Procedure

The focus was on local civil society: it is the place where the majority of volunteering takes place and where participation and democracy are practiced in everyday life. This makes it all the more important for local civil society to be trained in the use of digital tools, but also in the development of social and digital innovations. This requires sufficient funding for training and hardware - but this nationwide funding for the digital transformation of civil society is unfortunately still lacking (see also the BBE Policy Paper 2023: Civil society and digitalization). As a result, civil society is digitally divided between the "digitally experienced" and those who have too little knowledge and experience with the new technologies.

What are the consequences for our digitalization and democracy if associations and volunteers fall behind in terms of IT and artificial intelligence? Here are the most important ones:

  • There are too few social and democratic IT innovations from civil society

  • The needs of civil society are not incorporated into technology development

  • Technological developments fail to meet local needs

  • Digital participation remains below its potential

  • Open data is neglected as a topic and opportunity in civil society

  • Local civil society cannot play enough of a role in shaping the digital present and future

The key question of the Digital Democracy Camp is: "How must digital tools be designed to activate people for democratic cooperation?"

But democratic digital tools also need

  • trained addressees

  • trained civil society organizations

  • a culture of participation

  • a differentiated discussion of values

Conclusion

For the students at the theme table, the perspective on civil society was new.

A number of ideas were collected on how KIT could cooperate with local civil society and what would be important with regard to curricula:

  • Promoting the democratic maturity of students in their education

  • Establish and maintain cooperation between students (as experts) and local civil society

  • Students develop tools for and with civil society in semester or final theses

  • Offer training and "consultation hours" for associations and initiatives

  • Make civic tech a topic in education and training

Some of the ideas from the theme table were taken up and discussed with great approval in the plenary session of the Digital Democracy Camp.

Contact

Dr. Brigitte Reiser: brigitte reiser∂stakeholder-management de