The ICLD Local Democracy Academy 2022 which took place 6-10 June in Visby, Sweden, gathered around 70 researchers from all over the world (approx. from 50 universities in 30 countries in five continents) for example from Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Serbia and Australia. The researchers – a mix of senior and junior’s, took part in the experimental, highly participatory conference to explore how transformative local democracy can work to bring people and politics together. The researchers came overwhelmingly from the Global South. For many, it was the first significant collaboration with peers from different Global South regions. Mixing participants from different regions helped to challenge assumptions and perspectives. And mixing junior and senior scholars created a healthy balance of new ideas, deep expertise, and a shared desire to learn.
Connecting research and policy
Throughout the conference with its 8 thematic streams, the research-policy connection remained central. For example, in so called “Local Democracy Labs”, researchers met local government officials to discuss pressing issues faced by the municipalities. The researchers also allocated time and effort to transform their research into policies for sustainable, digitalized, healthy, feminist cities, which were presented on stage in in the iconic democratic arena of Almedalen, Visby. Link to the live stream: https://youtu.be/7b-Si0dJ-OM
Expanded networks, bright ideas and new horizons for local democracy research and practice summarizes this year’s Academy that we definitely can call a success!
Mora about the academy here: icld.se/LDA