'Speaking tube' is a means for direct democracy as it aims to make the voices of the citizens heard.
A speaking tube (in German Sprachrohr) is used to amplify sound, in our case the voices of the citizens. The pandemic raises the question of how resilient our democratic system is. Do we have to adapt it to be more crisis-resistant? In our given situation, the complex political process of consideration between infection prevention and civil liberties requires the public to be ever more critical. But how can their voices be heard when assemblies can't take place any more? Maybe it is time to think about new ways for citizens to participate. Even before the pandemic, there was room for improvement. A lot of people just don't know how they can participate in politics or launch an idea that could lead to a citizens' initiative. The ones who do know are usually not a representative cross-section of the population.
Our idea is to allow the citizens to participate on the streets in the form of an attended wagon that can be easily moved from one place to another on foot. Like this, we can reach residents that are normally less involved in local politics, e.g. in low-income districts.
The flashy colour of the wagon and the speaking tube on the roof will attract the attention of the passers-by and arouse interest in the project. The first step would be to collect opinions on certain topics, for example, 'What's missing in your neighbourhood?'. After evaluating the different answers, the next step is to formulate the goals and then to decide if they can be reached either through citizens' initiatives (e.g. building an adventure playground) or if they have to be requested on a political level, like public petitions (e.g. to shut down a coal power plant).
Residential districts are kind of an urban cell with their own problems and possibilities, and so they must be considered separately from one other. This also offers the chance to test concepts that can then be applied on a bigger scale.
When we first started imagining the resilient city of tomorrow, we thought that we should ask the people directly how they envisioned it. By thinking about how we could reach the public, we realized that designing a system to do this may answer our question. Of course, we are aware that our little wagon can't revolutionize how citizens participate in local politics, but maybe it can be a thought-provoking impulse to a more grass-roots democracy. By facilitating better communication between citizens and government the 'speaking tube' is functioning as a means of direct democracy.
