Self Determination

Self-determination: the freedom and opportunity to determine the aims and forms of participation

Participation must not only be organised top-down but also initiated and owned by marginalised groups, on topics that matter and in ways that work for them. Self-determination recognises the existing resources and agency that groups already have and the capability to define their own priorities rather than be dictated to, especially in contexts where self-determination has been denied (Brackel et al 2025: 4; Fraser 1996). This includes economic empowerment through participation, linking distribution and recognition through the capability of self-determination (King 2014: 14; Vlahos 2025). Self-determination, as well as being an important democratic capability, is also an underlying democratic principle for the development of the CA more broadly: for marginalised groups to determine their own democratic capabilities and the lives they have reason to value (Schlosberg 2012).

Downstream Enablers of Self-Determination in INSPIRE

„ Margin-led participation, where marginalised groups or organisations lead participation, can help ensure that participation addresses the priorities of those communities and strengthens collective agency.

„ Thinking of democracy as a way of life (see Dewey 1916, 1927) shifts attention from (only) institutional to everyday spaces and relations as the multiple loci of democratic participation. This shift in both narrative and practice supports self-determination by highlighting everyday democratic agency (Bussu et al 2025a).