Leading academics and civic actors will discuss obstacles and ways forward for civic organisations and social movements in a context characterised by growing distrust in democracy and divisions inside our societies.

Among the key questions to be discussed:

How do civic activists reach out to social sectors or geographical areas that do not mobilise, especially those who experience exclusion?
Has the COVID-19 civic response facilitated civil society’s ability to reach out to different audiences and mobilise more diverse sectors of our societies, for their immediate and long-term needs to be addressed?
To what extent are civic actors able to re-capture those that are attracted by regressive identity-based backwards thinking?