S2E11: Rethinking Citizen Participation, Power, and Agency
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How can collective action be triggered and maintained at scale and how can we use that for change?
In this episode of Social Norms Chat, host Cäcilia Riederer [https://www.linkedin.com/in/c%C3%A4cilia-riederer/] seats with Györgyi Galik [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gy%C3%B6rgyi-g%C3%A1lik-79a63b49/?originalSubdomain=uk], from Dark Matter Labs [https://www.linkedin.com/company/darkmatterlabs/] / Governing Together [https://governing-together.org/]. Together, they talk about innovations at the local level, focusing on citizen participation and its importance.
Check Governing Together's summary introduction here [https://freight.cargo.site/m/Q2708631036486211925853816933094/Governing-Together-Our-New-Pathways-22.12.2025-master.pdf].
Mentions and Recommendations made by Györgyi:
* Caroline Lucas [https://x.com/CarolineLucas/status/1213047722275737602?s=20]
* Kate Crawford [https://katecrawford.net/]
* Chris Anderson [https://hbr.org/2012/10/why-data-will-never-replace-thinking]
* Olga Kusinskaya (2023) The Politics of Invisibility Public Knowledge about Radiation Health Effects after Chernobyl [https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262548861/the-politics-of-invisibility/]
* Holly Buck (2024) A Climate Disinformation Focus Takes Us the Wrong Way [https://jacobin.com/2024/08/climate-disinformation-fossil-fuels-ngos]
More about relationality, one of the main concepts mentioned during this episode:
Relationality refers to the underlying web of relationship dynamics, interactions, and exchanges through which governance actually happens. It is not an add-on to institutions or processes. It is the condition within which they operate. At its core, relationality recognises that:
* people, institutions, and systems are interdependent and entangled
* outcomes emerge from patterns of interaction, not only from individuals, intentions, formal decisions, norms, or structures
* governance is shaped as much by how we relate as by what we decide
Relationality might include:
* Relationships between people and groups
Trust, mistrust, care, conflict, reciprocity
* Flows and exchanges
Information, resources, power, attention, legitimacy
* Feedback loops
How we learn, iterate, and how signals travel, are interpreted, and influence present and future action
* Collective sense-making
How shared understanding is formed, contested, and stabilised
* Institutional arrangements
The formal and informal rules that shape how interactions happen
* Value logics
What is considered valid, important, or legitimate within a system
* Everyday practices and enactment
How daily practices are implemented and exercised through the design of ‘soft infrastructures’ – tools, processes, and practices that translate intentions and policies into institutional capacity
Follow us on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/transformnorms] - and message us if you have questions, suggestions or comments!
Executive producer and host: Cäcilia Riederer
Special guest: Györgyi Galik
Producer and writer: Dora Ehrlich
Editor: Tabusum Akter
