1. Talks with Lene Hartig Danielsen
In this first episode your podcast host, Anja van Hout, talks to a true change agent: Lene Hartig Danielsen. She is Head of Citizens' Services in the City of Aarhus (Denmark), one of the partners in the Network.
Anja and Lene talk about why Aarhus is participating in the Network, their previous experiences and the importance of citizen participation for policy-making. Her advice to civil servants when working with citizens is: “bigger ears and less mouth, create mutual trust and be humble!"
2. Talks with Wim Dries
In this second episode, our host Anja van Hout talks to a strong advocate for citizen participation: Wim Dries, Mayor of the City of Genk (Belgium).
Wim Dries emphasises the importance of creating a safe learning environment within the administration by empowering civil servants to experiment and reassuring them that it's perfectly fine to make mistakes, as long as they learn from them. One of the things he is very proud of is how his city has developed an experimental participatory approach to identify key values to enhance social cohesion in the superdiverse city of Genk.