Episode 8 takes us to Mexico.

We look at what it really takes to make participatory programs work in practice, and ask whether their success is less about design and more about discipline.

Dino Cantú-Pedraza, Founder and Director of Aceleradora de Ciudades, shares her experience from working inside a municipality and now supporting local governments to implement participatory programs.

She talks about the realities inside government, about the tools, and which ones work best for which goals. But in her experience, discipline matters more.

The program does not stop at design. It depends on how teams are organized, whether they get the needed support from political leadership, on champions who are not always the ones with the biggest titles, and on making sure the work is sustainable for public servants. She shares a story when they received so many participatory budgeting proposals that meeting their own deadlines became nearly impossible.

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We’re living through a global democratic crisis, and elections around the world are sending a clear message: the system isn’t working.

It Takes a City is a podcast about participation and democracy, hosted by Stefania Kapronczay, a human rights advocate working on resilient democracies from Budapest, Hungary, and Flavio Proietti Pantosti, a social innovator and entrepreneur focused on public administration from Rome, Italy.

Through conversations with practitioners, we explore lesser-known stories of participation, often from communities with limited resources. Each episode unpacks real tactics, strategic dilemmas, and honest failures, with the goal of offering practical insights.

Visit https://takesacity.com/ or get in touch at ⁠⁠ittakesacity@gmail.com⁠⁠.