The target audience for the glossary are mainly participants in citizens' assemblies, NGOs representing participant groups, organisers, recruiters, translators, interpreters, facilitators, and other support staff.

However, the Glossary may also be used by all those interested in citizens’ assemblies and in deliberative and participatory Democracy in general.

The glossary has three simplification levels:

Simple language - on average, up to 30 words or less.

Plain-language - even simpler version, up to 15 words, or less.

Non-verbal language - an icon depicting the concept.

The definition of the concepts was inspired by European Union laws and official European Union documents as much as possible. When there were no suitable official European Union sources, neutral scientific sources, such as professional glossaries or dictionaries, were used. The use of scholarly sources, except for the project EU-CIEMBLY Deliverable D.2.2, was deliberately avoided. These sources sometimes contain additional information on the concept but very often only use examples in concrete application contexts. For the reader, they can serve as entry points for deeper research on the subject.

The concepts included in the Glossary are of a general nature, translating how they are commonly defined and understood. Nonetheless findings/views of the EU-CIEMBLY may be incorporated into it, depending on the evolution of the project, once an intersectional lens can lead to reconceptualisations or to new definitions and understandings.

Most of the icons are available online, others were made by the Team. The icons are used for educational and non-commercial purposes, and the source of the icons is included as a hyperlink.

The glossary has 162 concepts with different degrees of complexity. Some are technical, some are general, some are context-specific. It is not to be read from A to Z. The concepts are organised according to criteria that reduce the number of terms depending on the needs or interests of the reader.

• 19 Basic concepts – “I only have a few minutes to read the basic concepts”.
• 29 Practical concepts – “I want to support citizens’ assemblies”
• 44 Essential concepts  - Guided tour of the main concepts organised in groups “Concepts? Which concepts? What am I doing here?”
• 23 Hard concepts – “I know the concepts. Show me only the hardest ones”.
• 41 Controversial concepts – “I want to discuss the most controversial concepts”.
• All the concepts – Long list of concepts carefully organised in groups and subgroups with a thematic logic (alphabetical order inside the sub-groups). “I want to pick the concepts from a list”.
• All the concepts organised in thematic groups (alphabetical order inside the groups) or in simple alphabetical order. “I have the whole day for this. Take me to the full list”.

The glossary was produced by the University of Coimbra, under the guidance of Prof. Alexandra Aragão, for the EU-CIEMBLY Project, and with the collaborative efforts of Dulce Lopes, Lucía Muñoz Benito, Matilde Lavouras, Isabel Valente, Clara Serrano, Alice Leal, Niall O’Connor, Lara Greaves, Ritu Parnu, José Ailton, José Heleno Vanzeler, Joana Schwan, Mariana Caetano Schmidt, Paulo Ellery, Diana Sousa, Gabriela Nicolay, Beatriz Mello, Carolina Garcia, Sofia Canova, Sérgio Baptista, Sofia Fonseca, Marianna Felipetto, Eva Vicente, Erica Valente, André Noronha e Raquel Figueiredo Valentim, Anne Figueiredo, Élio Figueiredo and João Salazar. 

Note: The concepts in this glossary have been intentionally simplified for pedagogical purposes. Therefore, these concepts should always be read with the understanding that the goal is not to engage in a critical or problematising discussion, but rather to provide a simplified and impactful presentation using deliberately neutral language.

The glossary is not meant to be devoured in one go! Its concepts are packed in an ultra-concentrated form, so they require careful chewing before digestion. Reading it all at once may cause intellectual indigestion—consume responsibly!