Democracy and the city.

Between representation and participation

International conference
Loppiano (Incisa V.no, Florence) - 3/4 November 2007

The conference will focus on the theme of political participation, the transformation of its contents and its forms and, in a special way, its application in the urban territory, in search of specific “qualities of participation” which are significant for a quality democracy.

Everyone has noted the weakened status of traditional forms of participation. At the same time, other signs, apparently counter-current, draw our attention: an unheard of sensitivity to the collective nature of new needs, a mobilization to safeguard common patrimony, experiments with new participated decision-making processes, with open deliberative forums, with networks of participation which are nonconventional.

Within this framework, the citizen territory becomes a crucial space, where generational, ethnic and cultural differences clash with greater frequency and intensity; differences that current structures of political representation do not seem able to adequately harmonize.

If the challenges of co-existence are most present and have their strongest impact in the urban environment, it is precisely by starting with the city that we can call in question the subjects and face the facts of this social and democratic transformation, in order to explore the new meanings of old words: citizenship, responsibility, community and fraternity.

The conference – an annual event of the Polical Movement for Unity – through the analysis of some praxis of participated political action in urban territories, plans to reflect and share ways and meanings which are favourable to a more authentically democratic life together.

This invitation is addressed to:
Administrators and elected officials at different levels of government, officers of local entities, citizens who are interested and committed in their parties, scholars and students of theory of democracy or related disciplines.

invitation Congress 2007