Democratic Innovations Lab

The Democratic Innovation Lab (DIL) of the Agricola School for Sustainable Development of the University of Groningen is an inter-faculty initiative for research in democratic innovations.

DIL brings together UG colleagues from different faculties and stakeholders to foster inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration. The initiative will cover a wide range of activities, such as public/private seminars, a summer/winter school on deliberative research methods, but also social activities to meet on a regular basis and foster cooperation.

Context. Over the past three decades, there has been growing attention paid to democratic experiments and innovations not only to overcome the growing trust divide between citizens and elected representatives, but also to improve political efficacy and reflect technological advances. Such experiments have taken different forms. Notable examples are citizens’ assemblies selected by lot, participatory budgeting and crowdsourced legislation, just to mention a few. Taken as an umbrella term, studies of ‘democratic innovations’ encapsulate interdisciplinary efforts to theorize and analyze how these once unconventional experiments can help overcome contemporary challenges.