Inclusion

Focus and aims

This Core Activity examines participants’ characteristics and motivation for inclusion and advances strategies and proposals to foster inclusiveness and participation.

Based on previous research and the unique amount of data gained through the Collection and analysis of data on past and current deliberative processes and made available for the European context, this Core Activity will first investigate how and to what extent online and face-to-face EU deliberative events differ in terms of participants’ characteristics, attitudes and experiences. The analysis will compare the characteristics of the population with samples of participants in face-to-face and online settings as well as participants with non- participants (i.e., people who refused to take part in these events) when data for the latter category are available. Then, WP4 will compare whether and in which aspects participants in the EUComMeet hybrid deliberative setting, matching moments of synchronous and face-to-face deliberation with asynchronous (moderated and unmoderated) text-based interaction, differ from a) participants in previous (face-to-face and online) experiences, b) the target population and c) non-participants.

In a second stage, by relying on the experimental design described in WP3, WP4 will compare the individual characteristics of participants assigned to different discussion groups (polarised, cross-sectional, like-minded, digital disadvantaged and cross-sectional in social media-like environment) as well as their reasons to participate, emotional experience, perceptions and evaluations of the whole deliberative process at different stages of the experimentation.

Finally, the effectiveness of different strategies to present the event to potential participants will be tested over the course of the deliberative experimentation.

Method

The activities will follow a workflow as detailed here below:

  • Analysis of the characteristics of the participants and comparison with the target populations and non- participants;
  • Compare whether and in which aspects participants in the EUComMeet deliberative setting differ from a) participants in previous (face-to-face and online) experiences, b) the target population and c) non-participants;
  • Compare characteristics, motivations, perceptions and evaluations of participants in the EUComMeet experimentation;
  • Test different strategies (frames) to present the EUComMeet deliberative event to potential participants;
  • Analyse the results from the previous phases and propose accordingly some scenarios for developing new deliberative protocols to address inclusion.

Who’s in the first line

University of Siena will lead this activity, with the contribution of the University of Stuttgart and Mission Publiques.

Meet our Team Members!

Expected outcomes

D4.1: Dataset interviews to vulnerable groups – Questionnaire (in all languages) and analysis of semi-structured interviews administered to vulnerable subjects during the testing of and training on the M4D2 platform. 

D4.2: Report on strategies for the involvement of stealth democrats – Report on the effectiveness of different strategies used to present the EUComMeet deliberative event to potential participants who initially declined to be part of the event because either uninterested or, in their opinion, unsuited for public debates (‘stealth democrats’). 

D4.3: Paper on participants EUComMeet vs. Other events – Research paper on the characteristics, attitudes and experiences of participants in European (online, face-to-face) deliberative practices and comparison with the participants involved in the EUComMeet deliberative setting. Differences from the target populations and the samples of non-participants will be examined. 

D4.4: Research note on participants to EUComMeet groups – Research note on the characteristics, motivations, perceptions and evaluations of participants assigned to different discussion groups. 

D4.5: Proposal for new protocols on inclusion – Report on deliberation and inclusion, including pragmatic proposals, which will be directed to a broad public sphere (officials, politicians, activists and interested citizens).

Most of these outcomes will be made publicly available. Find them here once ready!