We are now living in a democratic emergency. Autocrats, authoritarians and outright fascists appear to be on an inexorable rise, while few politicians seem capable of charting a credible path forward in the face of today’s immense challenges.

Yet just beneath the media radar, another story is taking shape: a story of democratic renewal and reinvention, with citizen participation, deliberation, and serious joy at its heart.

Come and explore this possible future, and where it’s already emerging, with Jon Alexander, author of Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us. He’ll be in conversation with two globally acknowledged pioneers: Claudia Chwalisz, CEO of DemocracyNext and one of the world’s leading practitioners and advocates of Citizens’ Assemblies, and Katy Rubin, who leads The People Act and is a driving force behind the growing global movement of Legislative Theatre.

Event Schedule
6:00pm: Pre-event socialising and networking

A cash bar will be available for refreshments.

6:15pm: Event begins

7:30pm: Event ends

Speakers:

Claudia Chwalisz is the Founder and CEO of DemocracyNext and a leading voice in democratic innovation. Her work is rooted in research on populism and the need to restore people’s agency in shaping public decisions. She played a central role in designing the world’s first permanent Citizens’ Assemblies in Paris, Ostbelgien, and Brussels.

From 2018–2022, Claudia led the OECD’s work on innovative citizen participation, producing global standards, tools, and reports including Catching the Deliberative Wave. She also founded the OECD Innovative Citizen Participation Network and advised governments in the Basque Country, Finland, and Lebanon.

An Obama Leader (2023), Claudia sits on advisory boards including the UN Democracy Fund and MIT’s Center for Constructive Communication. She is the author of The Populist Signal and The People’s Verdict, and co-editor of New Routes to Social Justice. Originally from Toronto, Claudia is based in Marseille and speaks English and French.

Katy Rubin is a Legislative Theatre practitioner and strategist based in the UK, and director of The People Act hub for creative civic practice. She works in partnership with local and national governments, advocacy organisations and community groups to co-create equitable and innovative public policy, through participatory processes that are joyful, creative and inclusive. She is currently collaborating with cities around Europe, implementing policy-change projects on housing and homelessness, health and welfare, the climate crisis, and more. Rubin is also a senior fellow with People Powered: Global Hub for Participatory Democracy and an Atlantic fellow at the London School of Economics, as well as former executive director of Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. Her Legislative Theatre work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority was awarded the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy’s 2022 award for Best Practice in Citizen Participation.

Jon Alexander is the author of CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us, and co-founder of the New Citizenship Project, a book and company that work to shift the dominant story of the individual in society from Consumer to Citizen. Among other plaudits, CITIZENS was listed by McKinsey as one of its Top 5 Recommended Books in its Summer Reading Guide 2022, described as “an underground hit” in the Financial Times, and selected by the World Economic Forum for its CEO Book Club. Jon began his career with a decade in the advertising industry, before shifting his attention to understanding how communications skills might be deployed to invite people into their agency as citizens, instead of just selling stuff to them as consumers.