Citizen Collectives' Monitor

Citizen collectives play a key role in strengthening democracy by encouraging citizen engagement with each other and with society. To support citizen collectives in professionalizing, we aim to create a representative monitor of citizen collectives in the Netherlands. The data from the monitor will enable CollectivePower to generate reliable knowledge about the sector. This knowledge will enable citizen collectives themselves, as well as relevant stakeholders such as the government and financiers, to make well-informed decisions. With the monitor, CollectivePower can strengthen citizen collectives, making it easier for them to fulfill their role within society and democracy.

Use of the monitor

Once the monitor provides a representative representation of regions and sectors over time, we can draw generalizable conclusions. The ultimate goal is to use the monitor to predict the challenges citizen collectives will face throughout their life cycle and how they can achieve their goals effectively and, if desired, sustainably. In this way, the monitor helps predict potential problems before they arise, based on the insights provided by other citizen collectives. Furthermore, the monitor can be used to identify anomalies or exceptional developments in, for example, a specific sector or location. This provides even greater insight into the movement's development, its drivers, and challenges.

Implementation

The questionnaire (also known as the self-scan) that new collectives complete when registering with the platform is an important source of data for CollectivePower researchers. To be able to advise existing and new citizen collectives more effectively, inform them how to function optimally, and enable a flying start, we want to learn more about citizen collectives. To this end, we are scaling up the existing questionnaire into a continuously operating monitor.