A new BRIDGE publication is out!

Andrii Darkovich and Dmytro Khutkyy, researchers of the BRIDGE project, examine how digital tools for participation in local governance are transforming participation in decision-making at the local level, and why these tools do not always lead to meaningful influence on decision-making.

The policy brief outlines:

• what digital participation is and which formats it encompasses — from e-consultations to participatory budgeting
• why the scale of online participation does not guarantee influence on policy outcomes
• how the digital divide and unequal levels of digital literacy may distort representativeness
• where digital formats are most effective, and where in-person deliberation is essential
• how online and offline tools can be combined, as illustrated by cases such as vTaiwan, Decidim, and Consul

The brief is relevant for those working on public participation and seeking to make local decision-making more inclusive: https://zenodo.org/records/19237070

The BRIDGE project is implemented by Kyiv School of Economics (Ukraine), Erasmus University Rotterdam (the Netherlands), the Technical University of Berlin (Germany), the University of Tartu (Estonia), and the Center for Innovation Development (Ukraine), and is funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe program. Any related publications reflect only the views of the project.