Citizen Skills Matter!

“Every democratic community or society must permanently re-emerge
based on the collective action of its citizens.”

“Slogan of the Month” in our student philosopher circle

(November 1990)

In 2002, we created a social business (www.bridging-ideas.com) to bridge people and ideas that would not meet otherwise. Our initial focus was and is to help organisations transform by fusing allegedly "hard" and "soft" disciplines and to mediate between academic silos. In 2013, when the anger of citizens and the blaming of liberal democracy and its politicians became unbearable, we decided to allocate even more of our time on mediating between echo chambers in society. And to remind us citizens that liberal democracy is demanding by nature, requires hard work in daily life and not only virtue signalling!

Moreover, we published a manifesto on “Citizen Skills Matter”, created this website as a platform, and – together with hundreds of citizens from many countries – developed a prototype of “Citizen Hacks” to remind us citizens of the skills needed in a liberal democracy. Citizen skills are a natural blind spot in public discourse, because no politician and no journalists would ever dare to raise this delicate topic. This website reflects how our thinking has evolved and is subject to rapid prototyping. There are many more in person gatherings and salons which are not covered here because of their confidential nature. Please contact us if you are interested in joining one of them.

And never forget: Confidence and hope are the superpowers of any co-creative liberal democracy! :-)