Dezentrum developed Forum For Inclusion for the Prototype Fund. It is a web application where people without voting rights can share their opinion on national votes. Anonymously and via voice message. The project wants to question who is allowed to participate in the democratic discourse and at the same time experiment with the digital public. Once a year, Opendata.ch's Prototypefund supports projects that aim to strengthen digital participation.
35% of Swiss residents have no voting rights
In Switzerland, 25.5% of the population does not have a Swiss passport. At the same time, people are getting older and older. Half of all voters are now over 57 years old. Nevertheless, underage Swiss residents make up a significant 14% of the population. While in some municipalities and cantons there is a voting right for foreigners or the voting age of 16, this is not the case on the national level.
This means that a significant proportion of people living in Switzerland are not allowed to participate in political decisions. This can turn into a problem for a democracy. After all, the raison d'être of a democracy is that political decisions are made by as many people as possible.
I have lived in Switzerland for 7 years. Although I am not Swiss, this is my home. I live here, I pay taxes and I am affected by politics in which I have no say.
Excerpt from an audio statement
(translated)
In addition, many urgent issues go beyond the traditional understanding of a democratic "we" in terms of time and space. Digitalization or the climate crisis are two examples where it becomes clear that political issues today must be considered not only internationally but also intergenerationally.
The Forum For Inclusion makes voices heard
With the Forum For Inclusion, we can't solve the problem of participation - but we can think about it - potentially with quite a lot of people. At the same time, we also know that digital platforms tend to produce hostile conspiracy narratives, rather than constructive discourse. They are often a breeding ground for misinformation, filter bubbles, and other disruptive dynamics.
This raises the question: can a digital public sphere enable respectful interaction if it does not follow market logic? In order to create the safest possible space for the persons that say something, we decided to build a prototype of our own platform to escape the background noise of existing social media channels.
Through voice messages, people who otherwise have nothing to say share their opinions in the Forum for Inclusion.
Testing a new digital space
Prototyping is an experimental process in which ideas are implemented as easily as possible and tested and improved as quickly as possible. Forum For Inclusion is a prototype, it is an experiment that asks how to create a digital space where people don't yell at each other, but simply listen. In this way, the Forum For Inclusion is an experiment in two respects - can we reach and sensitize people with the topic of political participation, and what conditions allow a people-friendly digital space to emerge?
The Forum for Inclusion gives people the opportunity to share their opinions who are otherwise not listened to
Gesa Feldhusen
Project staff
Article about the Forum For Inclusion on Baba News
Where do we go from here?
We are convinced that the Forum for Inclusion has the potential to raise discourse in Switzerland and attention to the issue of voting rights. After initial discussions with the Ausländer:innen Beirat Zürich and an exchange with the Common Grounds project in Winterthur, it is clear that many actors are already working on the topic and that the prototype is meeting with interest. First steps to bring the platform to the outside world were an article on Baba News, as well as an interview on Stadtfilter Radio and a workshop together with the Common Grounds Project to discuss voting rights on a smaller scale.
Nevertheless, we realize that the time component in the project, especially in the communicative area, is a big factor to establish the platform properly. Thus, we are looking for collaboration partners who are interested in taking the Forum for Inclusion to the outside world.
