Healthy debate for schools, businesses, NGOs and institutions

Democracy needs every voice.

Democracy does not stop at the ballot box. It lives wherever people decide together: in classrooms, companies, associations and town halls. I help them build a culture of healthy debate, where every voice is heard and disagreement becomes useful.

Start a conversation See my work

In music, this is counterpoint: independent voices that never merge, yet carry each other. That is what healthy debate sounds like.

Trusted byBrussels Parliament · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · Parliament of the Wallonia Brussels Federation · Federal Institute for Sustainable Development · Brussels municipalities

Note against note

Democracy has lost its conversation.

In music, counterpoint is the art of letting several independent voices sound together. Each voice keeps its own line. None is silenced, none drowns out the others, and the harmony comes from their tension. Difference is not the enemy of harmony. It is what makes it possible.

Elections every few years are not enough to hold a society together. Between them, public debate has collapsed into noise and silence: polarised shouting on one side, and on the other, people who never speak to those who decide for them. Trust erodes. Decisions get made about people, not with them.

Democracy was never meant to be a vote followed by silence. It is a practice, and a practice can be designed, learned and made to last. That is my work.

Putting debate back at the centre.

In classrooms and boardrooms, associations and general assemblies, town halls and parliaments. Wherever people decide together, three convictions guide the work.

Every voice has a place.

Inclusion is not a box to tick. I design every process so that the people usually left out take a full part: young people, people in precarious situations, newcomers, people with disabilities, the colleague who never speaks in meetings. The format adapts to them, not the other way round.

Disagreement is a resource.

I don't chase easy consensus. Good debate lets people hold their differences, understand each other's reasons, and still build something together.

Participation must last.

A process that changes nothing does more harm than good. I build processes that follow through, and a culture of debate that stays after I leave.

What I do

Not sure which one you need? Most projects start with a one hour conversation. Get in touch

Design and run processes

Deliberative design and strategy

Participatory and deliberative processes tailored to your organisation and its public, from the question asked to the follow up promised.

Citizens' panels and assemblies · participatory budgets · consultations · participation strategies

Facilitation

Every voice heard, fair speaking time, decisions that hold. In French, English and Spanish, with a network of freelance facilitators for large groups.

Citizens' panels · workshops · team and board sessions · general assemblies

Recruitment and sortition

Participants drawn by lot and recruited to reflect the whole population, including the people who are hardest to reach.

Random selection · stratified recruitment · outreach to under represented groups

Public debates and events

Debates between politicians and citizens, conferences and festivals: I handle the format, the participants, the logistics and the room.

Public debates · conferences · festivals · hybrid and online events

Build lasting capacity

Training

I train facilitators, moderators, teachers and managers to run a good debate or a good meeting themselves, so the practice stays after I leave.

Facilitation training · moderation · debate in the classroom · meeting practice

EU and funded projects

Partner or coordinator in European and Belgian funded projects: I design the participation work, run the citizen activities and handle the reporting.

Horizon Europe · Erasmus+ · CERV · regional and community subsidies

Work across borders

Argentina and Latin America

With local partners in Argentina and across Latin America, I bring participatory methods to the places where communities, local authorities and civil society have to decide together. I also help connect European funders and Latin American organisations around shared projects.

Participatory local governance · shared resources (water, land, territory) · dialogue between actors who rarely meet · civil society strengthening · EU funded cooperation

Argentina

Buenos Aires is my second home.

I lived and worked in Buenos Aires for seven years, and I am back in Argentina regularly. I know its institutions, its civil society and its way of debating from the inside.

Today I am building partnerships with Argentine organisations, to bring participatory methods to the places where people share a resource, a territory or a future, and to connect them with European funding.

Working on a project in Argentina? I reply in Spanish as easily as in English.

Start a conversation

Small by design

You work with me directly, from the first conversation to the final report. For larger processes, I bring in a trusted network of freelance facilitators, designers and moderators, chosen for each project. A senior practitioner at the table, a team that scales to what you need, without the overhead of an agency.

1ListenWe clarify the question, who needs to be in the room, and what will happen with the result.
2DesignI propose a format, a recruitment method, a timeline and a budget.
3RunI facilitate or coordinate the process with my team, on site, online or hybrid.
4Follow throughI help turn the outcome into decisions, and make sure participants hear what came of their work.

Fifteen years in the rooms where it matters

I ran my first citizens' panel in 2010, on poverty. In 2014 I founded Particitiz, a Brussels nonprofit for deliberative democracy. In 2026 it became Counterpoint: same founder, same commitment, a sharper focus on debate.

2024 · European Commission, JRC

Festival of Citizen Participation and Deliberative Democracy

days bringing Europe's participation community together in Brussels, on the green transition.

2024 · imec‑SMIT, VUB and FARI

Brussels citizens' jury on artificial intelligence

Brussels citizens setting the ethical principles for when AI may decide how energy is shared.

2021–2023 · Brussels Parliament and French speaking Brussels Parliament

Deliberative committees (commissions délibératives)

mixed committees where citizens drawn by lot and MPs debate and vote together: 5G, homelessness, urban biodiversity, urban noise, apprenticeship training, and citizens' role in crisis management.

2023 · Federal Institute for Sustainable Development

Citizens' Agora on a Just Transition

citizens from across Belgium over four weekends. 24 conditions and 47 recommendations presented at the Senate.

2017 · Brussels Parliament

Make Your Brussels: Mobility

citizens drawn by lot. Their citizen resolution was adopted unanimously in plenary.

2017 · Municipality of Molenbeek

WAM1080, We Are Molenbeek

100

citizens drawn by lot to debate radicalisation and community cohesion. 56 proposals put to the vote.

See all 19 projects

2024 · City of Brussels

ECoD City Network meeting

days hosting the European Capital of Democracy city network in Brussels, on sustainability in urban planning.

2023 · IKEA Belgium

Regional political debates, Bienvenue chez Vous

debates in Mechelen, Liège and Brussels between politicians, associations and single parent families.

2022–2023 · Municipality of Etterbeek

Mixed participatory committee on decolonising public space

members, 20 residents drawn by lot and 10 councillors, debating colonial symbols in public space.

2022 · Innoviris

Participatory workshops, Prospective Research programme

deliberative workshops where Brussels residents helped shape the 2023 research call.

2020–2021 · Positive Money Europe

European Citizens Bank

An online European participation strategy, with citizens drawn by lot and trained to take part.

Since 2019 · Municipality of Auderghem

Participation strategy

100

residents in the inhabitants' assembly, which runs the shared budget and takes part in major municipal decisions.

2019–2022 · Municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort

Participation strategy

Support for the municipality's participation unit, and in particular its participatory budget.

2017 · Parliament of the Wallonia Brussels Federation

Citizens' Parliament: What Europe for tomorrow?

citizens drafting a resolution on the future of Europe, presented to the Parliament.

2016 · Particitiz initiative

Canal Citoyen

Residents and workers along the Brussels canal debated in small groups and presented their proposals to local mayors and aldermen.

2016 · University of Siena, Horizon 2020

EU Engage

500

European citizens in an 11 day online debate, with 20 moderators working in 10 languages.

2015 · Brussels Environment

Climacteurs: 100 voices for the climate

young people drawn by lot. Their proposals were carried to COP21 by the Brussels minister.

2013 · European Parliament

Citizens' Agora on youth unemployment

Young people and civil society organisations from across Europe debated with MEPs, at the European Parliament in Brussels, on what the EU should do against youth unemployment.

2010–2011 · European Parliament

Poverty and exclusion amongst senior EU citizens

older people living below the poverty line took part in my first citizens' panel, part of a European Parliament study in 18 EU countries that fed its Citizens' Agora on crises and poverty.

About me

I'm Dim Lemaire. Born in Liège to a Belgian father and an English mother, I grew up between two languages and have lived and worked in Brussels, Buenos Aires and Cologne. That life between cultures taught me early that people who see the world differently can still understand each other, if the conversation is well built.

I organised my first citizens' panel in 2010, on poverty, and in 2013 the European Parliament's Citizens' Agora on youth unemployment. I also advised at the European Parliament, then founded Particitiz in 2014. Since then, I have designed and facilitated deliberative processes for parliaments, municipalities, European institutions, universities and companies.

LanguagesFrench, English, Spanish

Based inBrussels

Working inEurope and Argentina

Let's talk.

Planning a debate, a workshop, a citizens' panel or a participation strategy? Tell me about your project with the form, and I'll get back to you.

Or write to me directly: dimitri [at] counterpoint.works