Inspiration
Training

Mapping New Forms of Collective Action | CIFE

A Master’s degree course on democracy for the European institute

Since 2017, Stephen Boucher has been teaching a five-day Master’s degree course for the Joint Master in Global Economic Governance & Public Affairs of the European Institute / CIFE, the Centre international de formation européenne. The course helps students make sense of the many symptoms of democracy’s difficulties, to organise those and critically examine democracy’s various challenges as well as the many democratic innovations that are emerging around the world. On this basis, the students work on their own theory of change as to how we could address those challenges.

The following core questions are examined:

Why is the legitimacy of Western democratic forms of governance being challenged today?
What are the interconnected root causes of today’s possible democratic collapse?
On which part of the equation should efforts focus in order to properly reinvent democratic governance?
What are the current options at hand to renew its legitimacy?
Are these efforts making a difference?
What more could be done?

A highly interactive course with a range of digital teaching tools

The course is taught in a interactive fashion, using a variety of methods (mindmapping, brainstorming, debates on the street) as well as digital tools that will be useful to them in other contexts:

Kialo: thanks to this online collaborative mapping tools, the students can map the symptoms, the attempted remedies and identify gaps
Kumu: thanks to this online debating tool, the students can identify and organise the arguments in favour and against certain central propositions debated during the course, such as “Participatory democracy will save democracy”
Mentimeter allows students to follow the presentation and answer questions at the same time
With Mural, students contribute to mindmaps which are then used on Kialo and Kumu.

Students have expressed a high level of satisfaction in their evaluation of the course.

Services provided

Documenting inspirational governance practices and public policies
Research, writing, public speaking, moderating events
Training and capacity building in Collective Intelligence, Creativity and Collaborative Leadership