WueRAT - Future Council Würzburg
The Project WueRAT
The transformation experiment aims to research and test new democratic approaches in order to negotiate sustainability issues in a context-specific, fair and future-oriented manner, taking into account scientific findings. To this end, the experiment deals with the controversially discussed role and function of citizens' councils for the socio-ecological transformation. The aims of the ‘Würzburg Future Council’ experiment are the transdisciplinary examination of alternative forms of democratic participation and the associated practical discussion and development of solutions for a current sustainability issue in Würzburg.
Five phases are planned for the realisation of the Citizens' Council, whereby the concrete course and outcome of the project are still open at this stage due to its experimental nature:
(1) Scientific research and conception,
(2) Political contact phase and definition of the topic,
(3) Realisation of the Würzburg Future Council
(4) Scientific reflection and analysis of the experiment
(5) Recommendations and conclusion.
The accompanying research on deliberative processes in citizens' councils in general and on the transformation experiment in particular not only serves as a starting point for the conceptualisation and implementation of a Würzburg Future Council, but also as an important contribution to social science sustainability research. In the sense of a trans- and interdisciplinary co-production of knowledge, the experiment is to be carried out in cross-status cooperation between students, lecturers, scientific and non-scientific staff from various departments at the University of Würzburg and in close cooperation with practice partners from politics and civil society.
Email: Zukunftsrat@uni-wuerzburg.de
