Uploaded on 2017-03-19 by Marina

In Moscow, where I live, we have a platform called “Active Citizen”. It is a project of government of Moscow and is a kind of public electronic referendum on various questions concerning the city. The process is very simple: you register, vote, collect points. The most active citizens get some perks form the Moscow government. The questions differ from street design to who will sing on the main prom this May. However, this platform is widely criticized for not being an effective instrument of participation, rather a simulation of participation processes and their substitution. Citizens don’t get to solve real questions: no one asks them if they really need this renovation, if they need this or that expensive public event. Instead they are asked if they like this or that logo, or a model of a street lamp. And in the end, the results of voting will be adjusted to what government wants to present. I believe, this is just a beginning of Citizen Design Science in Russia and hope that instruments of public participation in planning processes will only advance and grow towards solving real questions. Image: printscreen from the "Active citizen" website (http://ag.mos.ru/)