European inventory of
societal values of culture

Karels & Janssen - CityLab010

Karels, A. & Janssen, S. (2023). CityLab010: Investigating the inclusive, participatory, and democratic nature of a citizen initiative platform. INVENT Case Study.

CityLab010 is a citizen initiatives program in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, through which citizens with an innovative idea or project for the city can apply to receive a subsidy from the municipality to get their initiative off the ground. This bottom-up program has a contested history and has made many changes over the past years to become a more inclusive, participatory, and democratic cultural policy tool. Through a content analysis of research reports and news articles, this case study zooms into aspects of CityLab010’s journey to: 1. Illustrate how the program has made progress, achievements, and successes over the years to become the bottom-up citizen initiatives funding mechanism it aims to be; and 2. Critically evaluate, investigate, and reflect on where it falls short of this aim. In so doing, lessons for cultural policymakers, who similarly seek to design cultural policy instruments that are truly inclusive, participatory, and democratic, become evident.