2023 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

17th Edition

Phase 6 of 7

Publication Preparation 18/09/2023 - 06/11/2023

Process phases

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Strasbourg: Citizen Jury – Strasbourg Capital of Christmas

Official proposal

07/06/2023 11:47

Origin:

For more than 450 years, the Strasbourg Christmas Market has been part of the Alsatian identity and tradition. With more than 2.5 million visitors each year, the event shines in France and around the world.

Since 2020, the City of Strasbourg has been thinking about developing the event.

The elected officials of the city of Strasbourg wanted to involve the population in the development of this emblematic event. After a first phase of consultation with the population of Strasbourg through a questionnaire in 2021 (more than 2000 responses), it decides to set up a citizen jury in 2022 so that it can submit a notebook of recommendations on 3 "controversies" identified from this event. during the 2021 consultation.

Goals:

Involve citizens in the evolution of Strasbourg Capitale de Noël in a new format to contribute to the evolution of an event that makes the history and heritage of Strasbourg
Open this approach to a diversity of citizens who would not participate on their own in citizen participation schemes via the drawing of lots from electoral lists
Set up a participatory format that allows collective deliberation on the substance of a complex and cross-cutting subject

The members of the jury had to answer this question: "For a more social, ecological and united Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas event, which the people of Strasbourg reclaim: how to make this event evolve in our daily lives, under our Christmas tree and in the all of the districts while preserving its influence and its tourist attractiveness? ". The aim was to get the members of the jury to produce a report that consists of an overall vision and recommendations adapted to the complexity of the event and the various issues it covers.

Functioning:

A draw made it possible to designate 50 citizens to compose the citizens' jury.

This citizen jury then met during 8 working sessions to learn about the subject and deliberate on a collection of recommendations.

Results and impacts:

The citizen jury proposed 32 recommendations around 4 themes 🡺 In all neighborhoods, Under our tree, Daily life, Limit the ecological and energy impact of the event.

This last theme was not initially planned and imposed itself in the work of the jury given the topicality of the global energy crisis during their meetings.

After the feasibility analysis of the recommendations by the technical services, the elected officials retained the implementation of 30 of the 32 recommendations proposed.

The community has produced a list of commitments for future editions of the event (response from the community attached).

In connection with the members of the citizen jury, the community implements a process for monitoring and promoting the recommendations that have been implemented.

Assessment :

The evaluation of the citizen jury system was based on three sources: individual evaluation questionnaire for members of the jury, analysis of the system in sub-groups, individual evaluation questionnaire for people who had abandoned the system .