Photo: City of Vienna/Martin VOTAVA / From left to right: Wencke Hertzsch, Head of the Office for Participation, Councillor Angelika Pipal-Leixner, Democracy Councillor Jürgen Czernohorszky, Susanna Erker, Head of Department for City of Vienna – Energy Planning (MA 20) and Councillor Nina Abrahamczik.
Having received several awards for its engagement initiatives, the city is now taking its democracy strategy to the next level. We’ll take a look at the newly launched “Office for Participation” in this article.
The next stage of Vienna's democracy strategy: Office for Participation
In spring 2023, a task force proposed the so-called Vienna Democracy Strategy under the question, “Viennese democracy in transition?”. The task force, consisting of politicians, administrators and researchers, representatives of NGOs and participation agencies, agreed that they wanted to further expand the opportunities for civic participation in Vienna.
The strategy will now be further developed in a participatory manner by the “Office for Participation” until spring 2025. The office is not a fixed location, but a mobile workshop that the engagement team takes out into neighborhoods to consult community members they may not reach otherwise. The “Office for Participation” aims to strengthen democracy and further expand the accessibility of community engagement. The goal is to enable more people to participate in city life, especially those who have been difficult to reach so far (e.g. people on low incomes or without the right to vote).
“With the Office for Participation, we want to reach people who have not participated in democratic processes to date, or only to a limited extent, for example because they are affected by poverty and exclusion or because they do not have Austrian citizenship. Our aim is to make these often unheard voices heard and to involve them actively”
Jürgen Czernohorszky (City Councillor for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Human Resources)
Using experience to anchor a culture of engagement
The Office for Participation makes use of the Vienna Climate Team’s methodological experience. Outreach processes have played a major role in this and were very successful – so successful that the Vienna Climate Team even received the “Participation and Co-Creation” award at the Austrian Administration Prize 2023.
The methods they have learned from include providing accompanying services such as childcare or free meals, to make it easier for people to participate, and cooperation with local multipliers. A particular focus is on co-creation, the joint development of projects by the administration, politicians and residents. Community juries are organized by lottery, which helps achieve a more diverse representation. The city uses its digital Go Vocal engagement platform as a communication hub to keep residents up-to-date.
What does Vienna have that other cities don't? It’s the European Capital of Democracy
What are Vienna's special features? And what can other cities learn from Vienna's consistently successful engagement practices? Three important points:
Systematic, inclusive engagement
Vienna relies on systematic and inclusive community engagement: The city is developing targeted formats to involve disadvantaged groups in decision-making processes. This could serve as a model for other cities that face similar participation challenges.
Low-threshold, outreach, and hybrid approaches
Experience shows that investing in outreach, cooperating with local stakeholders, and using hybrid participation formats – i.e. combining online and offline measures – are successful. Other cities could learn a lot from this practical and real-world approach.
Co-creation and trust
Vienna attaches great importance to balanced cooperation between community members, politicians, and the administration, which strengthens trust in political processes. This could serve as a model for cities that want to increase the trust of their communities in administration and politics.
“Democracy is the sum of all quiet and loud voices”
Vienna is pioneering a contemporary culture of engagement
With its “Office for Participation”, the city is playing a pioneering role, because it brings all those involved to the table in the most important areas of everyday life. The subject areas of Vienna's democracy strategy consist of:
- Expanding information and breaking down barriers
- Institutionalizing engagement
- Opening up politics and administration
- Promoting democracy and opinion-forming
- Activating target groups
- Strengthening coexistence and cooperation
- Promoting a culture of discussion and debate
The “Office for Participation” is currently on the road in Vienna's districts. Democracy in Vienna is being promoted with personal, in-person discussions and a broad framework program of interactive participation formats. The office relies on a trusting atmosphere, clear information materials and visual, interactive design elements – and, of course, its digital participation platform from Go Vocal.
This already offers an overview of all planned events, thanks to the integrated event calendar. The next stage is digital participation. The third phase will start in autumn 2024, when the online ideas forum will open, giving all Viennese residents the opportunity to contribute their ideas and opinions on the strategy and share them with their neighbors.
“We use varied activation measures and proactive approaches to generate informal conversations. This allows us to pass on information about our activities and the topics of democracy and participation in Vienna in a low-threshold manner.”
- Wencke Hertzsch, Head of the Office for Participation.
Want to learn more about community engagement? You are welcome to get in touch with us. We'll show you all the ways you can get your engagement projects off to a flying start!
