For trustful, participatory and inclusive public policies

INVOLVE   For trustful, participatory and inclusive public policies   Across Europe there is evidence of the existing distrust in political institutions and the increased stratification of political involvement across Europe, with more vulnerable citizens having less access and influence in the decision-making process. The COVID 19 pandemic has exposed and reinforced these trends. These shifts pose a great challenge to the democratic welfare state.   INVOLVE’s main objective is to help design scalable and generalizable strategies to reduce social, economic, and political inequalities. The project builds on systematic quantitative research into the trends, causes and complex relationships between democracy and inequalities. The project also focuses on how public and social services engage with vulnerable groups of citizens, especially in the age of digitalization. It will involve vulnerable groups in 8 European countries as co-researchers to complement and refine the results. In a series of concrete pilots of action-research, their aspirational capacity and their power of voice are strengthened to bring about concrete change in public services and social policies.   INVOLVE will not only involve vulnerable citizens facing multiple inequalities, but also political and public decision-makers, NGOs representing vulnerable groups and experts to develop viable political strategies in order to achieve more trust-based governance in public services, to contribute to the development of a more participatory and socially responsible society.   The final stage of INVOLVE aims to contribute to democratic participation in social policies at local, national, transnational and European level through campaigns with viable policy recommendations. INVOLVE also aims to enrich future research with an encompassing and innovative perspective on inequality and democracy, based on an ‘alliance of knowledge’.