Contributors

Fang-Hua Chang

Fang-Hua Chang is a researcher and communication specialist from Taiwan, with a Master’s in Multilingual Communication from KU Leuven. Her thesis dissected how local and international media frames Taiwanese elections, sparking her passion for political communication and youth engagement. With experience in Communication strategy, she hopes to turn dense policies into content that doesn’t make people fall asleep. Passionate about social justice, sustainability, and making activism more fun, Fang-Hua is on a mission to turn ‘boring’ into ‘inspiring’ and break down communication barriers.

Yassine Chagh

Yassine Chagh is a human rights activist currently serving as Chair of IGLYO and Anti-Racism Panel Coordinator, as well as Project Coordinator at Queerstion. Their work focuses on a wide range of issues, including refugee and migrant rights, peacebuilding, digital rights, anti-racism, and decolonisation—particularly challenging white saviourism, white supremacy, and tokenistic approaches both within the LGBTQIA+ community and beyond.

Yassine’s expertise is rooted in lived experiences as an Indigenous, migrant, and Black/person of colour, as well as through active engagement with various local and global organisations and platforms such as UNFICYP, UNHCR, WOMEN WIN, European Youth Forum and more.

Ilaria Cascino

Ilaria Cascino is an art historian, curator, and socio-cultural worker with nearly a decade of experience in the third sector. In 2022, she founded )(, an Artist Run Space in the Capo district of Palermo. Her passion for new creative practices and contemporary languages stems from the peripheral contexts of the South, where underground production and socialization are key to cultural growth. Since 2023, she has been the VicePresident of the Youth Council of Monreale.

Elze Vermaas

Elze Vermaas works at the Belgian social-ecological think tank Oikos and has contributed to a transnational research project on deliberative democracy. Her interests also include themes such as degrowth and ecofeminism. She is co-author of the book Enough: Thriving Societies Beyond Growth. She previously worked as a secondary school teacher and served as vice-chair of Jong Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks, the youth wing of the Dutch green think tank.

Danae Theodoridou

Danae Theodoridou is a performance maker and researcher. She completed her practice-led PhD in Roehampton University in London (2013). Her work focuses on social imaginaries, the practice of democracy and the way that art contributes to the emergence of socio-political alternatives. She teaches in the MA Performing Public Space (Fontys Academy of the Arts), conducts research in the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, curates practice-led research projects, and presents and publishes her work internationally. She is co-author of The Practice of Dramaturgy: Working on Actions in Performance (Valiz, 2017) and the author of Publicing – Practising Democracy Through Performance (Nissos, 2022).

Emmanuel Schlichter

Emmanuel Schlichter, LL.M. (Kent), is a fully qualified lawyer who studied law at LMU Munich and holds a Master’s degree in International Political Economy from the University of Kent. He applies his legal expertise in diverse and innovative ways to advance systemic, sustainable transformation. As the founder of Rechte der Natur e.V., he works to anchor the Rights of Nature in European law. He is also part of the team at GermanZero, where he focuses on climate policy reform and building pathways toward a just ecological transition.

Katy Rubin

Katy Rubin is a Legislative Theatre practitioner and strategist based in the UK, and director of The People Act hub for creative civic practice. She works in partnership with local and national governments, advocacy organizations, and community groups to co-create equitable and innovative public policy through participatory processes that are joyful, creative, and inclusive. She is currently collaborating with cities around Europe, implementing policy-change projects on housing and homelessness, health and welfare, the climate crisis, and more. Katy is also a Senior Fellow with People Powered: Global Hub for Participatory Democracy, an Associate with Shared Future CIC, and a Senior Atlantic Fellow at London School of Economics, as well as former executive director of Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. Her Legislative Theatre work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority was awarded the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy’s 2022 award for Best Practice in Citizen Participation.

Maxime Ollivier

Maxime Ollivier is an activist for social and climate justice. Climate demonstrations, advocacy, civil disobedience with Extinction Rebellion, electoral campaigning with La Primaire Populaire for the presidential election in 2022: he tried out a number of modes of action before turning to art as a mobilisation tool with the Le Bruit Qui Court collective. He is the author of two books published by Actes Sud: Basculons dans un monde vi(v)able (2022) and Vivre avec éco-lucidité (2024).

Kalypso Nicolaidis

Kalypso Nicolaidis is Chair in Global Affairs at the EUI’s School of Transnational Governance and leads key initiatives on democracy and global governance. Formerly at Oxford, Harvard, and ENA Paris, she has advised EU bodies and focuses on European integration, global affairs, and post-colonialism.

Gabriela Mocan

Gabriela Mocan, creative producer, curator, academic and author with 10+ years’ experience in cultural diplomacy. With a PhD in Philology/ Cultural Studies and collaborations in Europe, UK and USA, she has held strategic, leadership and educational roles. Head of Literature, Architecture and Visual Arts at the Romanian Cultural Institute in London (2013-2019 & 2024 – present), ACMC President and Strategy Consultant (Dec. 2023 – Jan. 2025), Board member of the ACMC and the London Arts-Based Research Centre, and Lecturer at the Babeș-Bolyai University.

Zukhra Mavlanova

Zukhra Mavlanova is a master’s student in Architecture at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Their academic interests include urban development, governance and the intersection of architecture, city planning and politics. This article is part of their ongoing research into democratic tools in urban planning.

Piotr Michałowski

Piotr Michałowski, researcher, cultural expert, a Board member of the European Network of Cultural Centers ENCC in Brussels (since 2015), and a Creative Programme Lead at the MuseoSpace Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands. He is an independent expert on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme, expert evaluator of DG EACEA (European Commission), Goethe Institut Brussels, EIT KIC Culture & Creativity and IFCD Fund of UNESCO. He has obtained MA in culture studies, MSci in project management, MSci in cultural diplomacy, and a European Diploma in cultural management.

Martha Fyllou

Martha Fyllou is a Communication & Media graduate (BA) with experience in research, writing and content editing on academic and professional levels. Currently pursuing an MA in Digital Humanities, with a focus on digital discourse, social inequalities, class dynamics, cultural reproduction, and the impact of (cyber)networks across urban, rural, and online spaces. Martha is also interested in intergenerational struggles, racial realities, and tech-neoliberal transformations. 

Ana Luisa de Moraes Azenha

Ana Luisa de Moraes Azenha is a Brazilian researcher based in Berlin, specializing in participatory and digital democracy, with a focus on how public participation and technology can impact traditional lawmaking processes. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Humboldt University of Berlin, with a dissertation on “Assessing the Effects of Crowdlaw Initiatives: Experiences from Latin America.” She is also a member of the Latin American feminist collective Sor Juanas Berlin.

Amy Delis

Amy Delis is a master’s student at the EUI’s School of Transnational Governance, following the specialisation tracks of transnational democracy and global security challenges.

Marco Bertaglia

Marco Bertaglia has been a group facilitator, mediator, and trainer in Nonviolent Communication for 25 years. He was also an academic and an EU Official, worked at the EU Commission in Brussels, and at the Joint Research Centre, which he left in 2019 to be the national coordinator of Extinction Rebellion, Italy. In 2021, he founded the intentional community Comunità rigenerative to seed ecovillages in abandoned places in the Italian Alps. Passionate about facilitation and togetherness, he aims to recreate community and embody Gandhian nonviolence in all of life. 

Dr Amiera Sawas

Dr. Amiera Sawas is Head of Research and Policy at the The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

She is a feminist researcher and advocate who works at the intersections of climate change, gender justice, public participation and the social contract. Amiera has a PhD on water, climate and human rights in Pakistan and is a contributing author to the IPCC sixth assessment report on gender and climate security. As a person of both Syrian and Irish heritage, with close links to Pakistan, she has lived life with an acute awareness of the impacts of colonial histories and believes passionately in the need to decolonise.

Aliyah Davies

Aliyah Davies is a campaigner for the 4 Day Week Campaign, the UK’s national campaign organisation for a four-day working week with no loss of pay. She has a background in politics, with in-depth knowledge of national politics and the Parliamentary process, having previously worked for a member of the UK Parliament for a number of years.

Esther Lynch

Esther Lynch is General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation.

Alvaro Oleart

Alvaro Oleart is a FNRS postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science and the Institute for European Studies of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He is the author of “Framing TTIP in the European Public Spheres: Towards an Empowering Dissensus for EU integration” (Palgrave, 2021) and “Democracy Without Politics in EU Citizen Participation: From European Demoi to Decolonial Multitude” (Palgrave, 2023).

Bertie Coyle

Bertie Coyle is a writer who takes action against climate collapse and border violence with Just Stop Oil. Just Stop Oil has formed Umbrella, a new hub to coordinate the creation of radical, nonviolent projects. Take part in this revolution at juststopoil.org.

Celia Zayas

Celia Zayas is an expert on cultural cooperation and gender equality. She is a co-organizer, curator and communicator of Festival Sãlôngô. She is a participant of European Alternatives’ Democracy, Elections, Mentoring & Organizing (DEMO) project).

Dina Ntziora

Dina Ntziora is an Engagement Manager and Researcher. She specialises in fostering inclusive and collaborative practices. A participant on the European Alternatives’ Democracy, Elections, Mentoring, and Organising programme, she is a dedicated activist and producer, with a keen focus on promoting inclusion, well-being, and ethical principles.

Marion Colard

Marion Colard is a self-taught visual artist, and has been working with Roma communities for eight years.

Péter Tasnádi-Sáhy

Péter Tasnádi-Sáhy runs forum-theatre workshops for Ukrainian refugees at Dévai Inn (Budapest) and several other places. He holds a Master’s diploma in theatre directing from the University of Art Targu Mures and is currently a DLA candidate at BBU. 

Ron Salaj

Ron Salaj is a researcher and activist working at the intersection of technology for development, critical studies of AI, political philosophy, and the design of participatory processes for a democratic approach to new emerging technologies. He currently coordinates a Master’s program on “ICT for Development and Social Good,” delivered by the University of Turin and Impactskills, where he also serves as a Research Fellow.

Rafa Font

Rafa Font writes the newsletter The European Perspective, telling stories of the sociocultural, non-institutional Europe. He is an IT Engineer working for European institutions, a Green activist, and a Work From Anywhere advocate. You can find him on Mastodon: https://mastodon.online/@rafa_font

Ségolène Pruvot

Ségolène Pruvot is a Director of European Alternatives. A Doctor in Urban Sociology, she specialised in the exploration of the intersection between arts, the city and social change. Ségolène has extensive experience in designing and implementing transnational participative cultural programmes and research. She has coordinated the project Room to Bloom.