WECE Project

Project Duration:

2015-2017

Project Coordinator:

Susumu Shikano

Project Partner:

-       Kuorum.org (Spain) 

-       Verein Multikulturell (Austria) 

-       The European Center for Studies and Initiatives CESIE (Italy)

-       Social Innovation Fund (Lituania) 

Website:

http://we-europe.org/

Project Description:

The WECE Project was called into life by five partner organizations.  In addition to the Chair of Political Methodology at the University of Konstanz, the partnership is joined by the Spanish start-up kuorum.org and three non-profit organizations: Verein Multikulturell (Austria), CESIE (Italy) and Social Innovation Fund (Lithuania). The common aim of the partners is to foster new forms of political communication, using online-media and social networks and thereby foster political efficacy. The project is supported by “Erasmus+”.

A central element of the project is the Online-Plattform kuorum. org, developed in 2013 by the Spanish partner. The platform offers political representatives to get in direct contact with their electorate, to put up projects and new ideas for discussion, and to generate tailored networks for their topics. As part of the project, the platform is translated into German, Italian and Lithuanian and tested in one city per country. In addition, interested politicians and citizens can take part in tailored trainings on how to best use the platform for their communication purposes.

In Germany, the platform is tested in Mannheim. For an evaluation, the Chair of Political Methodology carried out a panel survey with three waves in Mannheim.