Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast It Takes A City

Episode Four takes us to Athens, Greece. In conversation with Amalia Zepou, former Vice Mayor of the City of Athens, we explore how one citizen’s frustration with the state of her city grew into her running for office and adopting a new model for civic engagement.

All this in a context where volunteering often carries negative connotations and trust between citizens and public servants is low.

Through the synAthina platform, we see how creating new digital tools can help bridge divides, recognize citizens and public servants as partners, and build more inclusive forms of participation.

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We’re living through a global democratic crisis, and elections around the world are sending a clear message: the system isn’t working.

It Takes a City is a podcast about participation and democracy, hosted by Stefania Kapronczay, a human rights advocate working on resilient democracies from Budapest, Hungary, and Flavio Proietti Pantosti, a social innovator and entrepreneur focused on public administration from Rome, Italy.

Through conversations with practitioners, we explore lesser-known stories of participation, often from communities with limited resources. Each episode unpacks real tactics, strategic dilemmas, and honest failures, with the goal of offering practical insights.

Visit https://takesacity.com/ or get in touch at ⁠⁠ittakesacity@gmail.com⁠⁠.

Episode Three takes us to Surakarta, Indonesia.

In conversation with Nina Asterina and Bima Pratama Putra from the Kota Kita Foundation, we explore what it means to take inclusion seriously.

On a single busy street, where children walk past a school, a prison, shops, and constant traffic, they were asked what they needed.

One of the first answers was a swimming pool.

Instead of dismissing it, the team explored what it really meant, and realized that what was missing was simpler and more possible: trees and green space.

By taking their voices seriously, the project shows how inclusion can improve life for everyone who uses the street, including adults, people with disabilities, and even shop owners. 

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We’re living through a global democratic crisis, and elections around the world are sending a clear message: the system isn’t working.

It Takes a City is a podcast about participation and democracy, hosted by Stefania Kapronczay, a human rights advocate working on resilient democracies from Budapest, Hungary, and Flavio Proietti Pantosti, a social innovator and entrepreneur focused on public administration from Rome, Italy.

Through conversations with practitioners, we explore lesser-known stories of participation, often from communities with limited resources. Each episode unpacks real tactics, strategic dilemmas, and honest failures, with the goal of offering practical insights.

Visit https://takesacity.com/ or get in touch at ⁠ittakesacity@gmail.com⁠.

Episode Two takes us to Chimanimani, Zimbabwe.

In conversation with Nyasha Frank Mpahlo from Green Governance Africa, we explore how legislative theatre can transform confrontation into dialogue.

Through drama, community members and government officials come together to reflect on local climate challenges in a setting that feels less formal and less threatening than a typical meeting room. 

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We’re living through a global democratic crisis, and elections around the world are sending a clear message: the system isn’t working.

It Takes a City is a podcast about participation and democracy, hosted by Stefania Kapronczay, a human rights advocate working on resilient democracies from Budapest, Hungary, and Flavio Proietti Pantosti, a social innovator and entrepreneur focused on public administration from Rome, Italy.

Through conversations with practitioners, we explore lesser-known stories of participation, often from communities with limited resources. Each episode unpacks real tactics, strategic dilemmas, and honest failures, with the goal of offering practical insights.

Visit https://takesacity.com/ or get in touch at ittakesacity@gmail.com.

Episode One takes us to Budapest, Hungary. In conversation with Tessza Udvarhelyi, Vice Mayor of Budapest’s 8th District, we explore how participatory processes can become a winning edge in local elections, boost voter turnout, and help secure a second mandate in a district where that once seemed unthinkable. All this unfolds under increasingly authoritarian national politics, raising a central question: could participation be part of the antidote?

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We’re living through a global democratic crisis, and elections around the world are sending a clear message: the system isn’t working.

It Takes a City is a podcast about participation and democracy, hosted by Stefania Kapronczay, a human rights advocate working on resilient democracies from Budapest, Hungary, and Flavio Proietti Pantosti, a social innovator and entrepreneur focused on public administration from Rome, Italy.

Through conversations with practitioners, we explore lesser-known stories of participation, often from communities with limited resources. Each episode unpacks real tactics, strategic dilemmas, and honest failures, with the goal of offering practical insights.

For more about us, visit https://takesacity.com/ or get in touch at ittakesacity@gmail.com.

We’re living through a global democratic crisis, and if we’re honest, we don’t really know how to fix it. Elections around the world are sending a clear message: the system isn’t working.

It Takes a City is a podcast about participation and democracy. We believe that greater participation is key to making democracy work and to making people feel better about it. Through conversations with practitioners, we explore stories from communities with limited resources, where people are trying to reach beyond the usual voices, tackle difficult challenges, and sometimes fail along the way.

We are Stefania Kapronczay, an advocate for human rights and resilient democracies from Budapest, Hungary, and Flavio Proietti Pantosti, a social innovator and entrepreneur working on public administration and government issues from Rome, Italy.

Each episode focuses on lesser-known experiences of participation, especially in places where resources are scarce. We unpack real tactics, strategic dilemmas, and honest failures, with the goal of offering practical guidance you can use, whether you’re a local government official, an activist, or a policy student.

Special thanks to Amplitudo, especially Fabio di Santo, Daniele Prina, and Marco Romano, for their fantastic editing work. They genuinely care about participation and were an absolute pleasure to collaborate with. Learn more about their work at amplitudo.it.

For more about us, visit https://takesacity.com/