Programme

Thematic Sessions of the Local Democracy Academy 2022

Transformative Local Governments: Bringing People and Politics Together

Climate Action with or without Local Democracy

This session explores different mechanisms and tools that can be put in place to ensure citizen accountability for climate action. A particular emphasis will be placed on how youth and children can demand accountability from politicians to address climate change. Practical examples of local governments that are creating more participatory climate action will also be discussed.

Feminist Cities

This session brings together cases where local governments have achieved concrete changes to achieve the SDG 5 on gender equality. Practical tools such as gender sensitive budgets, gender data, gender commissions, campaigns to break gender norms and overcoming gender-based violence will be explored.

Tactical Urbanism

This session presents cases on simple and low-cost interventions in urban areas to improve public space and achieve inclusion and citizens participation. Particular attention will be given to cases on improved public space in marginalised neighbourhoods.

Child Friendly Cities

This session explores leading examples of towns where children’s rights are at the core of local government action. Cases on how to ensure that all children have the right to grow in a safe environment, with the possibility to access basic services, where they can learn, play in green spaces and make their voices heard.

Action Research for Equitable Health

The Covid-19 pandemic showed us how social, economic, and environmental factors impact our ability to access health care and live a healthy life. Working with vulnerable groups to address disease prevention, health promotion, and quality of life is essential to shift social norms and habits that affect our health. This session will bring cases of action research that have worked to improve health equity among vulnerable groups.

Participatory Budgeting in Marginalised Areas

Letting people participate and decide on how public funds should be spent can contribute to more democratic engagement. It can create a stronger link between citizens and local politicians leading to more accountability and transparency. Participatory budgets originally coined in the city of Porto Alegre in Brazil at the end of 1990s have been used for a long time in different parts of the world and many experiments have been conducted. This session explores the use of participatory budgeting in marginalised areas to increase trust in local government.

Digital Services

Digitalisation is without doubt a key feature for local governments. This session explores the use of digital tools to provide better service delivery that increase trust in local governments.

Transformative Local Democracy

This session will include innovate cases of local governments that have taken bold steps to improve citizen participation, equity and accountability. The cases will contribute to a broader understanding of the local democracy by sharing policies that have a transformative role. These cases should provide inspiration for other municipalities around the world.


Agenda Local Democracy Academy 2022

Day 1

Sunday, 5th of June

ALL DAY

Arrival in Stockholm

Arrival of participants in Stockholm at hotel Good Morning Arlanda

There is 24-hour transfer service to the hotel from Arlanda airport. Call +46 8 655 01 00 from the airport.

Address: Lindkrogsvägen 7, 190 60 Stockholm-Arlanda, Sweden

19:00

Registration and welcome dinner

Good Morning Hotel Arlanda


Day 2

Monday, 6th of June

Sweden’s National Day!

08:00

Departure by bus to the ferry terminal

11:30-14:40

Ferry to Visby

16:30-17:30

World Café

Maltfabriken, Uppsala University Campus Gotland

17:30-18:30

Welcome to the Academy

Uppsala University Campus Gotland

Remarks by:
Johan Lilja, Secretary General, ICLD
Jesper Skalberg-Karlsson, 1st deputy chairman of the Regional Executive Committee of Region Gotland
Olle Jansson, Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University for Campus Gotland

Introduction to the Academy:
Ana Maria Vargas, Research Director, ICLD

Introduction to the thematic sessions:
ICLD Advisory Group and Session leaders

18:30

Dinner

Maltfabriken, Uppsala University Campus Gotland

 


Day 3

Tuesday, 7th of June

08:30-09:00

Plenary

Uppsala University Campus Gotland

09:00-12:00

Engaging Presentations

Divided in the thematic streams, participants will make 5-minute presentations of their cases. These sessions are moderated by the session leaders.

The presentations should focus on the following questions:

What is your case about?
What was the original problem?
What methods you used to conduct research on this case?
What are the main findings in terms of local democracy: equity, participation, transparency and accountability?
What lessons could be useful for other local governments?

12:00-13:15

Lunch

Maltfabriken, Uppsala University Campus Gotland

13:15-17:30

Local Democracy Labs

Digitally from the hotel rooms

This is a space for local government officers and politicians to meet researchers and have a dialogue on issues of common interest. Local governments participate virtually this day by sending a question they want to discuss with a group of competent and leading researchers in the field of local democracy.

The format for this day is: one question, one hour, one group.

The conversations are moderated by the ICLD team. Researchers sign up to contribute with their knowledge in up to three labs.

19:00

Historical Dinner: Women in Local Democracy

Ristorante Isola Bella

The historical dinner is a storytelling movement initiated by Stockholm Museum of Women’s History to put historical women into our collective memory. We have adapted the concept and would like to invite all participants and session leaders to share a 3-minute story about a historical woman they would like the world to know about. We invite you to share the story of a women that in your opinion has been important for local democracy research and practice.



Day 4

Wednesday, 8th of June

08:30-09:00

Swedish Development Cooperation: challenges and opportunities to build democracy from below

Remarks by Staffan Smedby, Head of Sida’s Unit for Democracy and Human Rights

Uppsala University Campus Gotland

09:00-12:00

Thematic Sessions: Paper discussions (Part 1)

Within the thematic streams, each researcher is given time to present their paper and recieve feedback from fellow group members. The emphasis is on discussion. The session is led by the session leaders.

There will be a coffee break between 9:45 – 10:15.

12:00-13:00

Lunch

Maltfabriken, Uppsala University Campus Gotland

13:00-16:00

Parallel Training Session on case-based writing (Group A)

In this session, you will learn about the teaching case method, specifically as it relates to writing case studies. With the teaching case method, case studies are assigned before a class discussion to tell a story relevant to the participants’ experiences or future responsibilities. The case is used to anchor concepts that the educator would like to teach, to provide a common setting and situation in which to base the class discussion, to provide the situation in a story form that keeps the attention of the class and helps participants retain learning, to stimulate engaging class discussions, and to tie learnings to future decisions and actions. Part of this session will be a workshop for you to outline an idea for writing a case study. These outlines can be used to pitch your case study idea to ICLD, which has set aside funding for case writing projects in the thematic areas of the academy.

This session is conducted by Lisa Cox, senior writer and editor for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, where she works with faculty and staff to write, edit, and shepherd content—such as books, case studies, videos, and articles—through production and publication.

This time is reserved for participants of group A which includes the following sessions:

Climate action
Transformative local governments
Digital services
Tactical urbanism  

There will be a coffee break between 14:30 – 15:00.

Parallel Writing Session for Thematic Policy Briefs (Group B)

During this session participants and session leaders will meet in their thematic groups and draft comparative policy briefs, based on innovative policies for local democracy linked to their themes (climate action, feminist cities, etc). This session is moderated by the session leaders. Participants should think in advance about one or two policies they would like to propose for the comparative policy brief. These could be policies they have studied themselves or policies studied by other scholars. Bring the relevant papers that provide the background to the policy you would like to suggest. During this session you should also choose one policy that they believed could make the world a more democratic place and choose one of the participants to present it at the Almedalen panel on the 9th of June.

This time is reserved for participants of group B which includes the following sessions:

Feminist cities
Child friendly cities
Equitable health
Participatory budget

There will be a coffee break between 14:30 – 15:00.

17:00-19:00

Bike Tour of Gotland (optional)

Meeting spot Best Western Strand Hotel

Guided tour on rental bikes of the Hanseatic town of Visby and its beautiful surroundings. Historical anecdotes and breathtaking views will be provided, whereas a certain habit of biking is advised.

19:00

Outside dinner: Eathai food truck

Seafront promenade


Day 5

Thursday, 9th of June

08:30-09:00

Plenary

Uppsala University Campus Gotland

Presentation on local authorities and cross-sector engagement for sustainability certifications by Linnéa Engström, Program Director of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

09:00-12:00

Thematic Sessions: paper discussion (Part 2)

12:00-13:00

Lunch

Maltfabriken, Uppsala University Campus Gotland

13:00-16:00

Parallel Training Session on case-based writing (Group B)

See description above.

This session is reserved for participants and session leaders of group B which includes the following sessions:

Feminist cities
Child friendly cities
Equitable health
Participatory budget

Parallel Writing Session for Thematic Policy Briefs (Group A)

See description above.

This time is reserved for participants of group A which includes the following sessions:

Climate action
Transformative local governments
Digital services
Tactical urbanism

16:30-18:00

“If Researchers Ruled our Cities”

Almedalen Park, Visby

Almedalen is the name of historical park in the centre of Visby. It became famous because Olof Palme, a Swedish prime minister started to make political speeches there since the end of the 1960s. Nowadays, all political parties in Sweden meet in Visby for a week in July and use the Almedalen park to present their key political proposals. At the academy, we will challenge the researchers to take the roll of politicians for one day and prepare lively speeches to propose one policy that could change the world, based on their thematic sessions. 

The event is livestreamed and open to the public: LINK

18:30

Foodtruck dinner, games and perhaps an evening swim?

Almedalen park, Visby


Day 6

Friday, 10th of June

08:30-09:00

Plenary

Uppsala Universitet Campus Gotland

09:00-12:00

After the Labs: brainstorming joint research proposals

12:00-13:00

Final plenary, evaluation and conclusion

An award ceremony will conclude this year’s Local Democracy Academy, celebrating the best conference paper.

The winning work will be selected on four main criteria: innovativeness; relevance to local governments; quality of the methodology; and the level of impact to which the research contributes.

The selecting jury is made up of ICLD’s Advisory Group, comprised of accomplished researchers from some of the world’s top universities.

13:00-14:00

Lunch

Maltfabriken, Uppsala University Campus Gotland

16:00

Ferry to Stockholm


Day 7

Saturday, 11th of June

ALL DAY

Departure from Stockholm

Participants departs from Sweden.