Seminar: "Democratic Innovations and Eco-Socialist Transformation", by Mads Ejsing

The REAL-Postgrowth project (Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal) is excited to announce that our visiting researcher, Mads Ejsing will present a public talk as part of our monthly public seminar series.

Seminar: "Democratic Innovations and Eco-Socialist Transformation: Can Citizens’ Assemblies Promote Post-Growth Futures?"

Speaker:  Mads Ejsing, postdoctoral researcher, Stockholm University

• Date: Wednesday, Februay 11th, 2026
• Time:  11 -12h (CET)
• Venue: Sala Montseny (Z/022 & Z/023) ICTA-UAB

Transitions to post-growth futures raise pressing questions about political agency, strategy, and democratic change. While recent work on eco-socialist approaches to degrowth has emphasised the central role of workers, unions, parties, and social movements, less attention has been paid to the role of democratic institutions as potential agents of transformation. This talk brings the recent surge of citizens’ assemblies into this debate. Drawing on empirical research on climate assemblies across Europe, I examine whether and how deliberative mini-publics can contribute to post-growth transitions – not as substitutes for conflict, disruption, or class politics, but as complementary sites for reshaping political imaginaries, forging new alliances, and legitimising transformative demands. The talk explores how citizens’ assemblies might intersect with wider dynamics of systems change, and where their transformative potentials encounter structural and political limits.

Mads Ejsing is a postdoctoral researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University. His research lies at the intersection of democratic theory and climate justice, with a particular focus on democratic innovations such as climate citizens’ assemblies. He combines political theory with empirical research on climate governance to examine how democratic institutions can respond to accelerating ecological change.