Collection (6)

Democracy in practice

Is it possible to ensure an accessible and humane government for all residents of the city?


And how do we ensure that the future of the city takes shape in consultation with residents?In this collection you will find various parts that show how Amsterdam tries to find answers to these questions. Click on 'more information' for a description of the different parts in this collection.

More information

This collection contains the following components:

  • Executing democracy:
    In this essay, Anouk de Koning (Urban Citizen Fellow at NIAS) uses examples that deal with everyday contacts between youth professionals and parents and children, or area brokers and residents, addressing questions about democratization. It is precisely in such everyday contacts that the relationship between government and citizen takes shape. 

  • Democratization & Area-oriented working: Democratization is one of the keywords in the coalition agreement. The municipality wants, among other things, more say and ownership for residents and a better connection between residents and the municipality. In addition, the coalition agreement mentions neighborhood- and area-based working as crucial for a city the size of Amsterdam. But what exactly is area-based working? In this collection you will find relevant publications on democratization in Amsterdam as well as relevant local and national publications that focus on area-based working and various forms of neighborhood approach. Here you can also find the 'Administrative System Evaluation' which shows how the City of Amsterdam, together with residents, reflects on the newly designed administrative system.

  • Civil servants about taking risks in innovation (video session):
    From building 'donut coalitions' to advisory councils for migrants; city ​​clerk Peter Teesink speaks together with other important municipal innovators about methodologies for turning moonshots into reality. (Creative Bureaucracy Festival)
  • What do we need? Stories and publication:
    Here you will find the publication 'What do we need?', Which stems from the more than 150 stories that have been collected with the question 'What do you need in the future of Amsterdam?'. In addition to the publication, here you can also view all the stories collected per district .

    With these retrieved stories, 'What do we need' inspires in the realization of the Spatial Vision (draft).

  • Your voice in policy for the future: In this collection you will find both the entire pdf of the draft Spatial Vision document. With the Spatial Vision, the municipality determines what kind of a city Amsterdam wants to be in 2050 and how to work together to achieve this. In the coming weeks everyone can react on this draft (until March 4). In addition, this collection also contains the Environmental Impact Assessment and the open research Spatial Vision collection of the Spatial Vision project team, which outlines the context of the Spatial Vision in the making.

    Various quotes from the stories retrieved in 'What do we need?' are included in the vision in the making.

Image credits

Header image: Kleuren WHWN - Hugo Herrera Tobon

Icon image: Pixabay

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