Alterações em "Policy Assembly on Affordable Housing"
Descrição (English)
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INTRODUCTION
This Assembly represents a milestone in the collaborative spirit established between MultiPoD and IDEAL, two sister projects funded by Horizon Europe dedicated to advancing deliberative democracy. Building on the success of previous joint workshops, both projects have aligned their expertise to co-organise this high-level event. By presenting deliberative approaches and innovative democratic interaction technologies, this joint initiative aims to offer policymakers a unified experience that bridges the gap between citizen-led vision and evidence-based policymaking.
THE HOUSING CRISIS
Europe is currently navigating a profound housing crisis. While the EU institutions refine the frameworks for green and digital transitions, a fundamental factor of social cohesion - access to affordable housing- is being strained to a structural breaking point. This is not merely a market misalignment. As the situation worsens, it is becoming a crisis that threatens the legitimacy of the European social contract.
The MultiPoD and IDEAL projects, funded under the Horizon Europe programme, are born from the conviction that challenges of this magnitude cannot be solved through unidirectional, technocratic governance. The complexity of housing requires an architecture of “active listening” capable of integrating the lived experiences of citizens with the executive capacity of the legislators.
This Policymakers Assembly is not a conventional conference. It is a strategic convergence space designed to facilitate rich dialogue in which citizen-generated recommendations to address the housing crisis are examined alongside the practicalities of governance, fostering a shared sense of ownership and identifying a clear pathway towards building solutions.
ASSEMBLY STRUCTURE AND METHODOLOGY
The assembly follows a structured sequence designed to transition from deliberative theory to technological practice:
First Part: MultiPoD: The Interaction Scenario
MultiPoD will lead the policymakers' panel discussion, featuring a practical showcase of the MultiPoD deliberative tools in action, followed by a hands-on activity and an open discussion where policymakers can directly test the instruments and engage with citizen-generated content. Decidim will serve as the central hub for the asynchronous phase, hosting participant questionnaires, expert videos, and background materials, and managing the final voting process.
Figure 1: Virtual Citizen-Policymaker Assembly (run in English as spoken language) but involving citizens who speak different languages and are physically distributed across different European countries.
I. Real-Time Reflection: Working with MultiPoD’s DemocraticReflection.cloud, participants will use digital flashcards to provide instantaneous feedback - marking agreement, scepticism, or interest - while policymakers speak.
II. Multilingual Engagement: While the panel is conducted in English, MultiPoD technologies will enable citizens across Europe to participate in their mother tongues.
Figure 2: Example cards from De Liddo et al. 2017¹
III. Synthesis and Awareness: The assembly concludes with a moderated reflection phase. The moderator distils collective reaction patterns. This allows for:
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INTRODUCTION
This Assembly represents a milestone in the collaborative spirit established between MultiPoD and IDEAL, two sister projects funded by Horizon Europe dedicated to advancing deliberative democracy. Building on the success of previous joint workshops, both projects have aligned their expertise to co-organise this high-level event. By presenting deliberative approaches and innovative democratic interaction technologies, this joint initiative aims to offer policymakers a unified experience that bridges the gap between citizen-led vision and evidence-based policymaking.
THE HOUSING CRISIS
Europe is currently navigating a profound housing crisis. While the EU institutions refine the frameworks for green and digital transitions, a fundamental factor of social cohesion - access to affordable housing- is being strained to a structural breaking point. This is not merely a market misalignment. As the situation worsens, it is becoming a crisis that threatens the legitimacy of the European social contract.
The MultiPoD and IDEAL projects, funded under the Horizon Europe programme, are born from the conviction that challenges of this magnitude cannot be solved through unidirectional, technocratic governance. The complexity of housing requires an architecture of “active listening” capable of integrating the lived experiences of citizens with the executive capacity of the legislators.
This Policymakers Assembly is not a conventional conference. It is a strategic convergence space designed to facilitate rich dialogue in which citizen-generated recommendations to address the housing crisis are examined alongside the practicalities of governance, fostering a shared sense of ownership and identifying a clear pathway towards building solutions.
ASSEMBLY STRUCTURE AND METHODOLOGY
The assembly follows a structured sequence designed to transition from deliberative theory to technological practice:
First Part: MultiPoD: The Interaction Scenario
MultiPoD will lead the policymakers' panel discussion, featuring a practical showcase of the MultiPoD deliberative tools in action, followed by a hands-on activity and an open discussion where policymakers can directly test the instruments and engage with citizen-generated content. Decidim will serve as the central hub for the asynchronous phase, hosting participant questionnaires, expert videos, and background materials, and managing the final voting process.
I. Real-Time Reflection: Working with MultiPoD’s DemocraticReflection.cloud, participants will use digital flashcards to provide instantaneous feedback - marking agreement, scepticism, or interest - while policymakers speak.
II. Multilingual Engagement: While the panel is conducted in English, MultiPoD technologies will enable citizens across Europe to participate in their mother tongues.
III. Synthesis and Awareness: The assembly concludes with a moderated reflection phase. The moderator distils collective reaction patterns. This allows for:
Identifying "silent voices" and minority viewpoints through captured feedback.
Addressing critical questions generated automatically from audience engagement data.
Visualising alignment and divergence to ground the final open discussion in evidence.
The success of European democracy will be measured by the quality of the conversations we can sustain. We invite policymakers to join this assembly as "early testers" of a groundbreaking new deliberative infrastructure. In return for their vision, participants will receive privileged access to vanguard tools and a curated report of citizen proposals.
In an era of rapid complexity, the most resilient policy is one that restores agency to citizens and trust in institutions. This is the foundational aim of the MultiPoD and IDEAL projects, as we work to build the deliberative infrastructure for a more responsive and inclusive Europe.
The analytics capabilities of the MultiPod Visual Analytics Dashboard (see Figure 3) will support the moderators before, during and after the assembly. It will capture both the public debate on third-party channels and the transcripts of interactions within the assembly.
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