Purpose: recognising and reflecting on intersecting conditions that shape participation. DCF focus: intersecting conditions

Suggested participants: organisers, policymakers

Resources: paper and pens, flipchart and markers or an online alternative

This activity aims to prompt reflection on the intersecting conditions and factors that shape whether and how people participate in democratic life. It encourages reflection on personal experiences, positionality, privilege and oppression.

Planning

„ This is a standalone activity that can be used independently of any given participatory process. When using it as part of a process, apply it in the early planning stages.

„ This activity involves identifying personal experiences and challenges. Consider group needs and whether this is safe and appropriate. The activity can also be used as an individual reflection activity without sharing.

„ The activity can be done with minimal resources and time (around 1 hour), online or in-person.

Activity

1. Explain the scenario. It can simply be the very workshop they are attending right now (most straightforward and tangible), or you may want to use a hypothetical scenario e.g. “imagine you receive an invitation to a national-level citizens’ assembly.”

2. Ask participants, individually, to write down what enabled them to take part. Ask them to be as specific as possible and to write down as many as possible. Here are some possible prompts:

„ What enabled you to attend this session today and participate meaningfully? Try to include things that are usually taken for granted but crucial to support your participation.

„ What would have made it difficult for you to take part? Variations on this question may include a time-travel prompt: What may have prevented you from participating 5 years ago? What may prevent you 5 years from now?

„ What informed your decision to take part?

3. The facilitator invites people to share some of the things they have noted down. If online, they can refer to notes on the shared document or board.

4. Based on what has been shared, the facilitator prompts people to think about things that could be grouped together. For example, regarding access: working internet, access to a device, language of the meeting. Material resources include time, salary, and workspace.

Participants can cluster their notes as they wish, and they will likely overlap. Facilitators should collate the clusters and draw or note them down on a flipchart.

5. Ask participants to think about possible connections and intersections across these clusters, and who is responsible for them. For example, factors such as the venue, activities and timing might be the responsibility of the workshop organisers. Factors related to employment, such as the time and flexibility to attend the session, are the responsibility of employers and labour laws. Encourage participants to make connections across different layers of factors, from the personal and social to institutional and societal. The facilitator can write down or draw these connections on the flipchart, constructing a multi-layered diagram of intersecting conditions that shape participation. A variation could be to use more tactile materials, for example, strings to make thick or thin connections for stronger or weaker influences.

6. To close, ask the group to share their reflections on the activity. Encourage reflection on what they may have learnt about themselves, and about participation itself, by doing the activity.