Theme table citizens' councils

At the theme table "Citizens' Councils as a student participation format " , Anika Kaiser and Hannes Haßmann from the RHET AI Center conducted a citizens' council simulation together with the students, in which the question "On which topic should a student citizens' council be set up at KIT - and what is important in its implementation?" was addressed. Different formats were used, from plenary sessions and small group work to analog and digital voting.

Procedure

The students were first briefly introduced to important aspects of citizens' assemblies: What is the purpose of a citizens' assembly? What is the typical procedure? Who takes part? What topics can be discussed? Which interest groups should be involved? What should be done with the recommendations developed?

It was also discussed that citizens' assemblies enable deliberative processes in which personal involvement is recognized as expertise - and that their concrete design, such as random selection, should be adapted to the topic and the sphere of influence. It was also made clear that questions and information bases can ideally be further developed during the process in order to include the participants' perspectives to a greater extent.

After this crash course, the students started working together: first, they collected general needs and problems that they were familiar with from their everyday studies. The three relevant topics of 'teaching', 'ethics' and 'student life' were identified by jointly clustering the topics raised. The group decided to continue working on the topic of 'student life'and agreed on the following question: "How can we make the campus an attractive place?"

The second part of the simulation dealt with the implementation of a citizens' council on the defined question: Among other things, the students developed concrete recommendations as to which interest groups inside and outside KIT should be included in a council that asks about the attractiveness of the campus (e.g. transport associations, commuters). It was also discussed how digital tools could be used in such a council - for example, for anonymous polls oninterim results, hybrid sessions or collecting ideas outside of the plenary session. Translation tools for international participants and digital pre-surveys to involve broad target groups were also considered useful. At the same time, the students noted that the use of digital tools must be context-specific and needs-based. This concluded the simulation and was followed by a reflection on the Citizens' Assembly format.

Conclusion

While it was certainly a challenge to talk about a hypothetical citizens' assembly within a simulated citizens' assembly, the format was a success: the students were taught the basics of citizens' assemblies in a short time, which they were then able to try out directly. This gave them insights into both perspectives - that of the participants and that of a planning team - and allowed them to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of the deliberative method in citizens' assemblies in a practical way. Some participants would have liked to directly develop concrete recommendations on the question "How can we make the campus an attractive place?" instead of considering what a council should consider on this question. At the same time, the format showed how valuable open, dialogical participation processes can be for democratic culture and student participation - and that this perspective should also be considered further at KIT.

Contact

Anika Kaiser: anika kaiser∂uni-tuebingen de

Hannes Haßmann: hannes hassmann∂student uni-tuebingen de