In 2013, the city of Wolfsburg celebrated its 75th birthday. In addition to looking at its dynamic growth history and current issues, the city is also looking to the future. Against the background of successful participation projects, the development of a concept for citizen participation was an important topic for Wolfsburg. The city wanted to take an innovative approach and involve citizens directly in the development process. The nexus Institute accompanied this process in cooperation with the Department of Urban and Regional Marketing of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences. The process included the following modules of citizen participation:

  • Administrative forums (integrated requirements, fears and goals of the administration into the concept)
  • Citizens’ forums/citizens’ opinions (generated recommendations from randomly selected citizens for the concept)
  • Youth forums (adequately included perspectives of the young generation)
  • Citizens’ meeting (discussed results of the process in the general public)

The process was accompanied by a working group consisting of members of the Wolfsburg2020plus advisory board, representatives of the administration and civil society as well as the citizens’ forums. Taking into account the recommendations from the various participation modules, the working group drew up a draft resolution for the concept of citizen participation in Wolfsburg, which went via the Wolfsburg2020plus advisory board to the city council for a resolution.

Duration: 07/2013 – 02/2014
Client: Stadt Wolfsburg
Team: Dr. Birgit Böhm (Project management), Nicolas Bach, Dr. Christine von Blanckenburg

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