project

Engaged Citizenship

There has been a strong focus on different forms of active, engaged or democratic citizenship in recent years. For example, in mid-2024, the lower house of the Dutch parliament conducted a debate about a parliamentary letter on ‘strengthening democratic citizenship’ and the community right to challenge has been enshrined since 2025 in the ‘Strengthening Participation at the Local Level Act’. Engaged citizenship is also on the rise with respect to the water sector. A range of citizen initiatives and activist groups are active on different scales. They include: Met Elkaar voor Mekaar, Regenwacht040, Stop Afvalwater Twente, Mobilisation for the Environment, Gezondheid vóór Alles, Drinkable Rivers, Stop Glyphosate, Right2Water and Agractie. These groups act, to a greater or lesser degree, independently of other parties in the water sector. For example, it is relatively simple to disconnect a downpipe but banning the use of glyphosate is a lot more complex. And so citizens’ expectations and perspectives may differ. This project looks at the stance of the drinking water sector with respect to different forms of engaged citizenship.

Forms of engaged citizenship in the water sector

This study provides an insight into forms of engaged citizenship in the water sector and how they relate to formal actors in the water sector such as drinking water utilities. It provides drinking water utilities with valuable information for their dealings with engaged, and sometimes critical, citizens in their areas. It also provides tools for public and semi-public institutions to work with citizens on collective water issues.

The central focus is on the following research areas:

  1. Which manifestations of engaged citizenship do we see in the context of water?
  2. Why and how do citizens organise their engagement with issues of this kind?
  3. How does the drinking water sector stand with respect to engaged citizenship at present and why?
  4. In what ways can engaged citizens and the drinking water sector strengthen each other or work together on shared challenges (where they are present)?
  5. How can the drinking water sector work with forms of engaged citizenship, and how might it wish to do so?

Stories about engagement with drinking water

The first step in this project is to identify the forms of engaged citizenship that are seen in the water sector. This will be done by talking to drinking water utilities but also by searching known networks of civic initiatives (possibly online). The snowball method will be used to identify new initiatives on the basis of this survey.

Citizen initiatives take many forms and they vary considerably in size. In order to classify them, a desk study will be conducted looking at the significance of engaged citizenship (and how it changes) and the various forms that can be identified. The outcomes will be used to analyse and categorise the various types of engaged citizenship in the water sector. We will also look at the following question: What is the limit of engaged citizenship? For example, when does engaged citizenship become professional or semi-professional? Our primary interest is in forms of ‘uninvited participation’: collective, bottom-up mobilisation located outside institutionalised and formal processes that is often critical of the status quo.

The project will conclude with a case study of one specific citizen initiative. Through field research, during which we will talk to participants but also attend activities, we will try to establish an understanding of the narrative, in other words the story behind the initiative. This mainly revolves around the experiences of the participating citizens, as well as their motives for joining the initiative, and what they see as positive or opposing forces in that respect.

Deliverables

Finally, we will organise co-creation sessions to reflect on the importance of the research findings and their implications for the water sector. Here, we will look specifically at the implications for stakeholder management and communications. The questions focused on during this session will include: How can a constructive attitude towards engaged citizenship contribute to addressing challenges in the water sector? What will this require from drinking water utilities? In which roles can drinking water customers all contribute to the water transition?

The deliverables will be set out in a report and an academic publication, possibly in collaboration with academic professionals in the field of citizen initiatives.