Democracy

languages: ennl

Corona, climate, social inequality and democratic discomfort: we live in exciting times. Times when it is becoming increasingly clear that natural resources are no longer infinite and are being exhausted: abundance has turned into scarcity in every conceivable field.

From Abundance to Scarcity

In a world of abundance, an individual can go far on their own. In a world of scarcity, one's initiative is quickly limited by the "right" of another. And those rights now go very far. Things that once belonged to nobody are divided and appropriated: air is cut up into clean and - tradable - polluted air; water that lies deep in the Ethiopian earth is pumped up by Dutch companies to spray kilometers of flowers in greenhouses. That may all sound far afield, but the same mechanisms still take place close to home, where affordable housing, an adequate income, good care and easy access to knowledge and education are all under great pressure.

Flawed public domain

The consequences of a flawed public domain - a domain of public services made possible by public resources, safeguarded by public decision-making and public accountability - can be recognized everywhere. Local citizen initiatives are emerging to close the gaps. At the same time, they create the paradoxical effect that solidarity is actually reduced to your own street, your own community or your own neighborhood.

The (im) power of the public domain is one of the major issues of our time. This pavilion focuses on the theme of people's say in their lives - and that of others.