Demograph

Demograph is about developing a visual, interactive, and digital methodology to nuance and make visible the participant-based citizen dialogue.

The project intends to increase participation and representation in community building processes and thereby contribute to increased equality, sustainable development, and decreased polarization.Trough digital and interactive tools it examines the possibilities to create a visual methodology for transcription, evaluation, follow-up and measurability of the citizen dialogue.

The purpose is to increase participation by making the citizen dialogue visible in a communicative and pedagogical way – for the participants, citizens, the municipal administrations, other stakeholders and high-level decision-makers.83% of Sweden’s municipalities are currently working with some form of citizen dialogue.

Huge resources, both human and financial, are invested in creating platforms and processes for civil dialogue. But despite initiatives and investments, participation remains low.

For a sustainable development, there are currently no alternatives to the participatory citizen dialogue, and therefore new progressive initiatives are needed to increase the participation.The name “Demograph” alludes to the project´s democracy reinforcing purpose and the use of moving graphics as a powerful communication tool for establishing new, as well as managing ongoing dialogues, both in a relational way to create mutual trust with the citizen and thereby strengthen the communication between participants and decision-makers – but also as a digital map over the process to enable measurability and effects of participatory interventions.

We believe the key to increased participation does not have to be a drastic transformation of what is being done, but rather adding a solution for what is lacking today.

Through a small-scale test bed, collaboration, knowledge sharing and digital methodology, the project presents a solution to the identified needs.