DOI: 10.12688/openreseurope.24755.1 ISSN: 2732-5121

Citizens, Political Organisations and Digital Technologies: Disconnection or/and Reconnection? Sharing best practices on the use of digital tools to engage hard-to-reach groups.

Justine Brunet, Caroline Close, Lucas Kins, Michal Jacunski, Giulia Sandri
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This Open Letter argues that meaningful digital participation requires a fundamental rethinking of how political organisations active in the field of politics design, deploy, and sustain the tools intended to (re)engage hard-to-reach groups in society. It does so by drawing on insights that emerged from a roundtable held during the Relink 2 & Brussels Institute for Advanced Studies (BrIAS) workshop titled “Citizens, Political Organisations and Digital Technologies: Disconnection or/and Reconnection?”. This workshop brought together practitioners from organisations that deal with citizen rights, digital campaign support, youth internet governance, as well as civic participation platforms. Following the exchange, the organising committee commissioned a policy brief from the Policy Lab. The current letter summarises its key insights. Overall, practitioners that took part in the roundtable converged on the view that accessibility, trust, and institutional commitment act as primary obstacles to effective engagement. Digital participation tools often fail to accommodate linguistic, generational, socio-economic, and/or ability-related differences. At the same time, fragmented regulatory environments and widespread scepticism toward digital platforms further erode confidence. Political and administrative bodies frequently treat participation as an experimental add-on rather than a core democratic function, resulting in short-lived initiatives and weak—if not absent—feedback loops. Consequently, the letter calls for a shift toward technical innovation grounded in people’s lived experiences and communication habits, which inevitably requires long-term institutionalisation, diversified outreach strategies, and hybrid online–offline approaches that meet citizens where they are. Finally, the letter identifies key priorities for future research, including on ethics surrounding the use of AI for civic engagement, on the role of political and digital literacy, on the governance of digital platforms, and on the institutional conditions that enable durable civic participation. Ultimately, the letter seeks to contribute to the broader debate on how democratic institutions can reconnect with citizens in an increasingly digital public sphere.

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