Giovanni Allegretti, principal researcher at the Centre of Social Studies of Coimbra University (Portugal) is an architect and planner who funded the interdisciplinary Ph.D. “Democracy in the XXI century”, being visiting fellow at Witwatersrand University, King Saud University, and Paris Saclay University. For the mandate 2014-2019 he was co-chair of the Independent Authority for the Guarantee and Promotion of Participation of Tuscany Region (Italy). Scientific director of several EU-funded projects on citizens’ participation as “Participando” (for Rome Municipality) “INCLUIR: PB for fighting social exclusion” (for Venice Municipality), “PARLOCAL” (for Malaga Province) and “EMPATIA: Enabling Multichannel Participation Through ICT Adaptations”, at present he coordinates in 10 countries “PHOENIX: the Rise of Citizens Voices for a Greener Europe”. He also coordinated the Portuguese Unit of “PLUS (Platform, Labour in Urban Space)” and “Inova Juntos: Triangular Urban Cooperation for Innovation and Sustainability”. With Pierre Stoeber, he co-directed the documentary “Participatory Budgeting: a Silent Revolution” (2013). As a consultant, evaluator and trainer for participatory processes, he has been working in more than 40 countries for local authorities and institutions like UN-DESA; World Bank, Council of Europe, United Cities and Local Governments, German Cooperation Agency, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Swedish Association of Cities.
