In recognition of the ongoing 100-year jubilee of Swedish democracy, we organize a 90-minute online event on July 7, in collaboration with Athens Democracy Forum, International IDEA, and the Stockholm Philanthropy Symposium.

Swedish foreign minister Ann Linde will introduce the event and a keynote speech will be delivered by Madeleine Albright, former U. S. Secretary of State. The purpose of the summit is to discuss the aspects, challenges and opportunities that modern democracies face, seeking solutions for a more sustainable and inclusive future.

The event convenes prominent experts, policymakers, practitioners and academics from around the world. We are very proud to see our very own Youth Fellows Julia Strandquist and Daniel H. Uruijo among the speakers! Daniel will present the citizens’ assemblies’ policy brief which is currently written by the IYC2019 Youth Fellows, and Julia will present the global charter for truth policy brief which is currently written by the IYC2020 Youth Fellows.

Both policy briefs are substantiated by the recently published IYTT Working Papers, Dynamics of instituting mini-publics for a more participatory democracy, written by the American postdoc Jonathan Geib, and A Global Charter for Truth: Social Epistemology for the Internet Age (coming soon) written by British postdoc Joshua Habgood-Coote.

Daniel’s and Julia’s presentations are launched by the heading “Restarting Democracy – New Ideas for Participation, Accountability and Information Integrity”.

The Almedalen Democracy Summit is part of the Almedalsveckan (Almedalen Week) running as a virtual event from July 4-7.

Open registration for the Almedalen Democracy Summit can be found here.

After a long year of struggle with the effects of the covid-19 in Europe and the world, we have a renewed hope in the possibilities of bringing people together in exchange and discussion. At the same time, the challenges to democracy and the open society is felt more acutely than ever, strengthening our dedication to channel the voices, the ideas and the enthusiasm of the young people living in Europe. We are thus happy to announce that we hereby open up the call for applications to our third annual youth conference on November 22-25 at Visual Arena Lindholmen in Gothenburg.

If you are aged 18-24 and live in Europe, we want to entrust you with real-world challenges, and expect you to propose tangible solutions that inspire both prosperity and democracy – in other words, start your development as a democracy innovator!

Our annual conferences held in 2019 and 2020 included intense discussions and resulted in visionary proposals for sustaining and vitalizing an open society. The work on these proposals are still ongoing within the process we call the IYTT Bottom-Up Advise Loop, driving research and deliberation in the International Youth Think Tank and among its affiliations.

We strongly believe in the power of personal exchange and we very much hope that the situation will allow us to bring all our young participants together on site at Lindholmen, Gothenburg. However, due to restrictions, last year’s conference, had to be realized in an online format. To our great joy, it still came out a tremendous success, rewarding to both the participants and the think tank staff. We are thus more than prepared to adapt this year’s conference to online or hybrid exchange if the circumstances should demand so. Besides the pandemic, we are acutely aware of the even greater challenge of climate change. We are determined, therefore, that all travel to and from Gothenburg is done in the most sustainable way practically feasible.

If you are aged 18–24 and live in Europe, take the chance to join the movement that shows the ways towards a sustainable future of an open and democratic society. Apply no later than August 16.