A Democracy Lab is a participatory initiative as part of the CO3 project. Inspired by the World Café method, we invite citizens to reflect on the crises that undermine trust and democratic dialogue and to co-create policy recommendations. This particular session focuses mainly on recent episodes of extreme weather conditions in Portugal, the political response they received and their impact on the social contract.

CO3 - COntinuous COnstruction of resilient social COntracts through societal transformations (Funded by the European Union in the framework of the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement Nº 101132631 | Doi: https://doi.org/10.3030/101132631) project event co-organised bt CES  with the Centre for Liberal Strategies (CLS), Sofia, Bulgaria, as part of the Bienal Anozero 26.

Curator: Cristiano Gianolla | Facilitators: André Caiado, Patrick Sawyer, Rui Carvalho, and Vanda Amaro Dias

Registration is free but mandatory, subject to available places.Registration is free but mandatory, subject to available places. The email for registration is programaeducativo@capc.com.pt

Democracy Labs are structured participatory dialogue sessions inspired by the World Café methodology. They create a facilitated space where participants collectively reflect on a pressing political issue and co-create policy-oriented recommendations. The proposed Democracy Lab focuses on crises and the erosion of the social contract, exploring how specific crises (climate crisis) affect: trust between citizens, trust in public institutions and the quality of democratic dialogue. The objective is twofold:

• To generate evidence-based knowledge on how participants perceive the impact of crises on democratic life.
• To co-create concrete public policy suggestions on how institutions and communities can strengthen democratic resilience and rebuild trust.

The format combines deliberation, rotation, feedback and collective synthesis, ensuring both depth and plurality of perspectives.