Tomorrow, voters in the UK will go to the polls to elect new members of the European Parliament. Unlike most other votes held in England, Wales and Scotland, these elections will use a system called D’Hondt to decide how seats are won. Developed by a Belgian lawyer and mathematician, Victor D’Hondt, it’s one way of […]
Category archives: Uncategorised
Online PB in Reykjavik: making democracy easier and more fun
As part of our work developing the use of digital participatory budgeting (PB) in Scotland, Demsoc has been sharing inspiring examples of how digital tools have been used for PB around the world. This time we’re looking at Reykjavik’s long-standing PB process. This blog was written with the help of Róbert Bjarnason, who gave us […]
Corra Foundation’s Change Convention
On 28th March 2019, we attended Corra Foundation’s Change Convention at Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh, which over 300 people attended and it was so great that we decided to write all about it! The day was focussed on exploring how to create positive change in uncertain times. This is fundamental to our work in the […]
Weighing Digital, An Experts Guide
This week we published our new podcast series Weighing Digital, An Experts Guide. We spoke to three digital participatory budgeting experts across the globe who have designed, developed and are actively running participatory budgeting & citizen engagement digital platforms, with an aim to create a better and more democratic world. In this first episode we […]
Open Government Week 2019
This year, Open Government Week has focused on “increasing the number and diversity of partners taking part in events and conversations”. Countries, citizens, governments and civil society all over the world are taking part, running online and offline events and sharing the work they have been doing to promote open government. There have been webinars, […]
The Greater Manchester Democracy Hub: Helping people connect
We recently helped co-host a Greater Manchester Democracy Hub event with The Politics Project. These hubs were started by The Politics Project in London to break down silos and bring together people who are trying to improve democracy from a range of angles. We had a really interesting mix of people take part. You can […]
Antwerp’s consensus-based Participatory Budget
Introduction As part of our work developing the use of digital participatory budgeting (PB) in Scotland, Demsoc is showcasing innovative approaches to Participatory Budgeting, particularly where people use digital tools as part of their PB process. Antwerp is doing amazing things, using small, face-to-face group discussions to create consensus. But they have also experimented by […]
Participatory Budgeting podcast: balancing online and offline voting in Antwerp
As part of our work developing the use of digital participatory budgeting (PB) in Scotland, Demsoc is shining a light on some of the innovative ways other people across the world use digital PB. We recently shared a blog post about digital PB in New York City. This time we’re doing things a little differently […]
Minister for Housing Launches Our New Report on Empowering Tenants
The report aims to inspire housing providers about new ways of engaging with their tenants and giving them greater control over the places they live. The report was commissioned by Wheatley Group, Scotland’s largest provider of social housing, and was delivered with practical support from the Chartered Institute of Housing. We hope its findings are […]
PB in NYC: How online & offline can work together in New York
This post is the first of many… As part of our work developing the use of digital participatory budgeting (PB) in Scotland, Demsoc is shining a light on some of the innovative ways other people across the world use digital PB. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be publishing a series of blog posts on […]