ACTIVATED CITIZENSHIP | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
May 18, 2025 6:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
May 18, 2025 6:00 pm
14th & V
Join us to learn how deliberative democracy can reinvigorate citizen engagement and address key deficits in our society and our governance structures
Drawing on extensive field research across four countries, author Marjan H. Ehsassi provides in-depth case studies of citizens' assemblies in France, Belgium, Canada, and the United States. Through surveys, interviews, and participant observation, she developed an innovative framework for examining civic engagement across five key dimensions: learning, connectedness and belonging, enthusiasm, political activity, and consequential voice.
Drawing on extensive international research, Activated Citizenship provides:
At a time when many are questioning the health of our society from an epidemic of loneliness and lack of belonging, division and polarization to disengagement from political institutions, this book offers practical solutions and both hope for civic renewal.
Marjan H. Ehsassi is joining us on the Busboys stage to share more about this “blueprint for democratic renewal and reactivated citizenship” (Hélène Landemore, Professor of Political Science, Yale University, USA, and author of Open Democracy). Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Ehsassi will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of ACTIVATED CITIZENSHIP will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Marjan H. Ehsassi is the Executive Director of FIDE – North America (the Federation for Innovation in Democracy North America; fide.eu/north-america). She is a Future of Democracy Fellow (non-resident) at the Berggruen Institute; a Senior Innovations Fellow at the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability (IDEA at OSU); and on the Democratic Innovations’ Governing Council of the American Political Science Association (APSA). A former litigator, she is a skilled advocate, strategic policy advisor and a movement builder. She has been deeply involved in the research, design and implementation of several citizens’ assemblies in France, Belgium, Canada and the US. She served as one of four guarantors of the French Citizens’ Convention on the End of Life and on the Oversight Committee of the G1000 We Need to Talk Citizens’ Panels. Marjan’s first book Activated Citizenship - The Transformative Power of Citizens’ Assemblies was published in August 2024.
