No ivory towers – DEMOS researchers team up with citizens

Research in social sciences should eventually contribute to societal progress. In the DEMOS (Democratic Efficacy and the Varieties of Populism in Europe) Horizon 2020 EU funded project we want to ensure that researchers do not find themselves in ‘ivory towers’, but rather on marketplace of ideas in order to establish a link between academic findings and citizens’ lives.

DEMOS Crowdsourcing

DEMOS is investigating populism today and its consequences on democracy in Europe. We believe that an impact of this research beyond academia is crucial – especially when it’s about exposing certain research outcomes to citizens’ direct experience and opinions. This is why we launched a multilingual crowdsourcing platform in 7 languages (in EN, FR, IT, DE, TK, PL & HU) to provide the possibility for every citizen to engage with the research findings and help to develop them further.

Both citizens and researchers will benefit from the platform. On the one hand, citizens can contribute with their ideas to reach better research outcomes. On the other hand, academics will receive direct feedback on their proposals to address populist movements.

The goal is to work together not only to understand populist movements better, but also to come up with concrete policy proposals for decision-makers that can be used to tackle populist movements across Europe.

The crowdsourcing activity will collect the opinion and recommendations of citizens on three main topics related to populism: (1) participation and democracy, (2) minorities and (3) media.

Participation: Populist politicians often criticise governments for not representing the true interest of the people. New ways of participation, such as participatory budgeting, could strengthen ties between citizens and decision-makers. We want to learn more about people’s knowledge in the field: are they ready to explore these new ways of political participation?
Minorities: Many populists use hostile language towards minority groups. We want to understand what people think about those narratives: what solutions could work best to tackle them?
Media: In the last few years, the relationship between politics, journalism and citizens is constantly adapting to technological innovation. This has led to an increasing number of news channels for information, fragmentation and rising distrust in journalists. We want to understand people’s view on these developments. How could we increase trust in the media throughout Europe?

The crowdsourcing platform is open from now (July 2021) till the end of October 2021. We invite you to support our research by providing your input. There are 3 easy steps to get involved: