We are pleased to announce the publication of the new policy brief on “Building meaningful public participation in Intercultural cities – A guide to the appreciative inquiry approach”!

The Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities (ICC) programme has been promoting citizen participation among its members since its beginning in 2008. With the adoption of Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)10 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on multilevel policies and governance for intercultural integration in 2022, active citizenship and participation officially became the fourth pillar of the intercultural integration approach.

This guide is mainly intended for local authorities and practitioners involved in the various stages of participatory processes, from the initial planning to evaluation. While there are many specific types of participatory process – such as participatory budgeting, participatory policy development, participatory feedback and many more – the present guide intentionally focuses on participatory processes in general, so as to allow for its broadest possible use. The guide invites the reader to reflect on the meaning of co-construction in practice, on how to generate group dynamics based on social participation principles such as equality and mutual respect, and on the factors necessary for long-term sustainability of such processes.

The guide is based on the paper “Guía de Claves para la Participación Social en la Diversidad” prepared by the Group on Social Participation set up for Tenerife’s intercultural strategy Juntos En la misma dirección (Together in the same direction) in 2017. It was adapted to fit the international context of the global ICC programme and now also includes inspiring good practice examples from the member cities of the ICC network.

Read the policy brief