The Citizen Participation Series has covered a range of topics around public dialogue, community engagement and participatory governance. It is time now to turn our gaze to the digital world and explore how it is opening up new possibilities for democratic participation in Scotland and beyond.

This sandpit session will begin with a series of open questions: Can online citizen participation change democratic practices? Can we talk about digital governance and online policy-making? What does this mean in practice? What is possible? What is desirable?

The purpose of a sandpit session is to stimulate collective thinking: the agenda for discussion grows organically as participants engage with the open questions, share experiences and pose new questions. To get the conversation started we are lining up ‘provocateurs’ who will briefly share their perspectives and engage with emergent questions and reflections:

• Nikhil Agarwal, Science and Technology Studies, University of Edinburgh
• Peter Cruickshank, International Teledemocracy Centre, Edinburgh Napier University
• Ella Taylor-Smith, Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation, Edinburgh Napier University
• Isidoropaolo Casteltrione, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Queen Margaret University

There will be beverages and cakes. We hope you can join us for this open exploration of multiple realities and (im)possible futures.