Democracy & Civic Resilience

Understanding the systems that sustain democratic societies

Democracy & Civic Resilience is a research and collaboration programme of Altair Media Europe exploring how citizens, institutions and communities navigate technological, informational and societal change.

Democratic societies depend not only on formal institutions, but also on the ability of people to understand their environment, participate meaningfully in public life and engage with different perspectives.

As digital platforms, artificial intelligence and changing information environments increasingly influence public communication, questions of democracy are becoming connected to technology, education, media literacy, institutional capacity and civic participation.

Democracy & Civic Resilience brings these dimensions together within a broader systems perspective.

A systems approach to democratic resilience

Altair Media Europe approaches democratic resilience as an interaction between several interconnected layers:

Citizens & Participation — Exploring the knowledge, skills and opportunities people need to participate meaningfully in society and public life.

Information Environments — Understanding how media, platforms, algorithms and artificial intelligence influence access to information and public understanding.

Institutions & Public Trust — Examining how institutions communicate, adapt and maintain legitimacy in periods of technological and societal change.

Communities & Civic Capacity — Exploring how local organisations, education, culture and civil society can contribute to participation, dialogue and social resilience.

Rather than examining these questions in isolation, the programme explores how they interact as part of a wider democratic ecosystem.

From media literacy to civic resilience

MediaAwareEU provides an important starting point for this work by exploring how citizens can better understand the digital systems shaping the information they encounter.

Democracy & Civic Resilience extends that perspective.

It asks how public understanding of technology and information environments connects with broader questions of participation, institutions, education, community and democratic culture.

This creates space for interdisciplinary research involving fields such as media studies, political science, education, technology, sociology, public administration and cultural studies.

Living Labs

Research questions can be explored through Living Labs, bringing universities, civil society organisations, libraries, educational institutions, public organisations and communities together in real-world environments.

Living Labs allow partners to develop and test approaches with citizens and practitioners rather than designing solutions exclusively within research institutions.

Local experiences can subsequently inform comparative research, methodology development and wider European collaboration.

European and international collaboration

Democratic resilience is both a European and an international research challenge.

Altair Media Europe therefore aims to connect European research and practice with perspectives from other democratic societies, creating opportunities for comparative learning, international partnerships and shared methodological development.

Collaborative projects may be developed through European research, culture, digital and education programmes, including Horizon Europe, CERV, Creative Europe, Digital Europe and Erasmus+, depending on the objectives and partners involved.

Building a long-term knowledge programme

Democracy & Civic Resilience is designed as an evolving programme rather than a single project.

Individual research projects, Living Labs and international collaborations can address specific questions while contributing to a growing body of knowledge about how democratic societies understand and respond to technological, informational and institutional change.

The programme connects with the wider work of the European Media Society, MediaAwareEU and Altair Media Europe’s Infrastructure Awareness framework.

Democratic resilience begins with understanding the systems in which citizens, information and institutions meet.