Event

Democracy Conference

The Participatory Governance Initiative of Arizona State University is proud to announce that they will be hosting the Conference 'By the People': Participatory democracy, public engagement and citizenship education.

This year marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. Its core equality principle ("no one is above the law") and its premise that power should be shared by more people provided the justification and inspiration for the progressive expansion of citizens' rights, influenced national and international laws, and established the foundation of modern democracies. This anniversary gives us an opportunity to reflect on the unfinished project of democracy, and to examine the accomplishments and challenges of current democratic and educational innovations that aim at complementing the institutions of representative democracy with active citizen participation in processes of deliberation and decision-making.

This interdisciplinary conference will gather academics, practitioners, policy-makers, researchers and educators interested in expanding and deepening democracy anywhere in the world. It will welcome contributions related to the three main conference themes: participatory governance, civic engagement and citizenship education. The purpose is for presenters to share research findings, projects, methodological strategies, proposals and ideas to build capacity around the three conference themes.