'Sprout villages' as democratic laboratories

Main project idea: We want to explore whether villages can function as democratic laboratories, where citizens who are trained to address concrete challenges can build lasting social capital, democratic resilience and the capacity to act together. An integrated model with three mutually reinforcing tracks. The democratic laboratory of the project emerges through the interaction between three project tracks: the Village Coach Training Programme, the Sprout Village Programme (villages where new ideas, communities and local agency are allowed to take root and grow.) and the Village Academy. The three tracks each have their own function, but they are developed as one coherent capacity-building model.