Network Democracy for a better city Barcelona 5th May

Democracy Pilots Projectadmin 11th May 2015

D-CENT’s Network Democracy for a better city event was organised in the 5th of May in Barcelona. The event explored how politics and political participation can be reinvented with concrete proposals to devolve greater control and power to citizens. We also presented network democracy tools and ideas for real participatory cities of the XXI century.

The programme (see in English here / Spanish here) included four panels and 24 speakers. The event attracted around 170 high-level policy makers, academics, activists, civic society organisations, and hackers together to debate.

The intensive day was full of interesting presentations and discussions, including panels both in Spanish and English. Our Twitter hashtag #DemocraticCity was lively with comments, pics, remarks and discussion in both languages. We have shared some of the tweets in this post (see below), also have a look of the Storify roundup.

The programme was streamed and translated live, and you can find links to the recordings below, under each panel session. The clips include translations.

The event was hosted by D-CENT, Open University of Catalunya (one of the D-CENT partners) and Tecnopolitica. Thank you for all those attending and giving their input. And special thanks for all the speakers who made this day possible!

Panel #1: Democratic-common Cities vs Smart-private Cities

The panel discussed about data ownership and privacy, cognitive capitalism, how to build democratic smart cities. Speakers (from left): Francesca Bria, Carlo Vercellone, Gemma Galdón, Evgeny Morozov and Arnau Monterde, chair of the panel. Xabier Barandiaran joined via video conference.

“Cities have played an essential role in changing the social order in Europe.” – Evgeny Morozov

Watch clips from the panel:
http://bambuser.com/v/5486218
http://bambuser.com/v/5486232
http://bambuser.com/v/5486373

Presentations:
Gemma Galdon 5 May 2015
Carlo Vercellone, 5 May 2015, Barcelona

Panel #2: Citizen movements’ new generation campaigns in Spain

The panel included representatives from Podemos, Ahora Madrid, Barcelona En Comú, Zaragoza en Común, Kuorum.org and Labodemo. It discussed different forms and levels of participation, initiatives by Podemos, Barcelona En Comú’s collaborative process to make up the party programme, and how the Spanish 15-M movement has changed the whole landscape in Spain in terms of participation.

The speakers (from the left): Pablo Soto, Matias Nso, Miguel Ardanuy, Miguel Aguilera, Javier Toret and Miguel Arana (chair).

Watch clips from the panel:
http://bambuser.com/v/5486490
http://bambuser.com/v/5486568

Panel #3: Experiments of democratic participation in Cities, A European perspective

The panelists presented democratic participation experiments in Reykjavik, Helsinki, Germany and Estonia. Speakers (from the left): Marcelo Branco, Sören Becker, Robert Bjarnason, Hille Hinsberg, Joonas Pekkanen, Fabrizio Sestini (chair).

“Representative democracy isn’t real democracy. We have to move beyond it with new forms of decision-making.” – Marcelo Branco

Watch clips from the panel:
http://bambuser.com/v/5486984
http://bambuser.com/v/5487128

Presentations:
Fabrizio Sestini, 5 May 2015
Robert Bjarnason 5 May 2015
Hille Hinsberg 5 May 2015
Sören Becker 5 May 2015

Panel #4: New political movements for real democracy in Europe

The fourth panel of the day presented new political movements in Europe, like 5SM Italy, Syriza Greece, Podemos Spain, Pirate Party Iceland and Barcelona En Comú in Spain. Speakers (from the left): Andreas Karitzis, Birgitta Jónsdóttir and Gala Pin. Other panelists were Daniel Ripa, Silvana Denicolo and Pablo Gerbaudo (chair).