JUSTPLACE — JUSTice and Participation through LocAlised and Citizen-centred Engagement - Redesigning democracy through people-in-places territorial strategies.

JUSTPLACE responds to a growing European paradox. While national indicators often point to convergence, inequalities within countries continue to widen, trust in institutions is weakening, and many territories experience a sense of neglect and invisibility. The project examines how democratic disaffection develops at the intersection of personal disadvantage and territorial disadvantage, and how a people-in-places approach can help renew democratic resilience. Its central ambition is to understand how cumulative inequalities shape political attitudes, participation, withdrawal, and protest across different types of territories, and to identify place-sensitive responses capable of rebuilding trust, recognition, and democratic legitimacy.Over a period of 36 months, JUSTPLACE combines comparative research, participatory experimentation, and policy innovation. Democracy Studios in seven pilot regions will provide the participatory backbone of the project, ensuring that research remains closely connected to citizens’ lived experiences and to the specific realities of place. The consortium will develop a multi-level database and an interactive atlas, MAPDEM, to map inequalities, trust, institutional presence, and media deserts across European territories. It will also produce causal and spatial analyses of democratic disengagement and design CIVISIM, an agent-based model that will explore how territorial democratic futures may evolve under different policy and social scenarios.The project will convert these findings into practical tools and policy resources for public authorities and stakeholders. These outputs include DEMOTRACK, a self-assessment tool for local and regional authorities, a series of policy briefs, and a European Charter for Territorial Justice. A replication roadmap for Democracy Studios will support transfer, adaptation, and uptake through European and regional networks.JUSTPLACE will generate new evidence on the links between inequality, recognition, and democracy, while also delivering concrete instruments to help public authorities assess and strengthen democratic practice. In this way, the project aims to contribute to more visible, fair, and territorially responsive institutions across Europe.