August 2025,
Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin
Together with James MacDonald-Nelson from the research and action institute Democracy Next, Amelie Klein was invited to a panel on how to design spaces of government for the new democratic paradigm of deliberation. The panel was part of the Bucerius Summer School hosted by ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, a ten-day program for young professionals from the fields of politics, economics, media and academia. As part of the summer school, the Aedes Bucerius Summer School Lab Talk brought design and governance together to discuss the spatial implications of governance, decision-making and collaboration.
James and Amelie both championed deliberative democracy in their presentations and the ensuing panel discussion, while presenting various spaces of assembly from traditional parliaments all across the world to historic gatherings like the Germanic Thing, temporary protest architecture and back to modern day citizens’ assemblies. A truly democratic space, they argued, is an agonistic space: a political arena where, in reference to political scientist Chantal Mouffe, conflicts and oppositions are not eliminated but recognized as legitimate struggles between adversaries (not enemies) who accept the shared democratic framework.
Photo credit: ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS / David Ausserhofer
