Two seasoned players in the deliberative field: one from a research foundation, the other from a consulting firm. Iain Walker (newDemocracy Foundation) and Nicole Hunter (Mosaic Lab) bring a wealth of experience to a discussion about public deliberations. They explore: identifying the policy challenge, timeliness, convincing elected representatives, knowing what the most appropriate...Continue reading

    British Columbia led the way with a citizens’ assembly in 2004, a deliberative method which has been deeply influential among deliberative democrats. In 2006 a similar process, the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform was undertaken in Ontario. Peter MacLeod was part of the secretariat that oversaw the Students’ Assembly on Electoral Reform which...

  Janette Hartz-Karp has decades of experience as an academic and as an award-winning deliberative practitioner. She has an enormous amount to teach others. She is one of the most experienced facilitators of public deliberations in the world, having designed and conducted many, many trials of mini-publics. Many of these were designed and convened for...Continue reading

    Mark Warren is a political scientist based in North America whose original interest in democracy theory broadened to encompass deliberative democracy when he studied the British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly in 2004. Mark’s analysis of that case study and all that followed has been extremely influential in the field. In this conversation, Mark wonders...Continue reading

    This is part two of a conversation with John Gastil during which the history and practice of deliberative democracy is explored. What interests John and Carson is the way in which theory and practice intersect. They reflect on their own academic journeys and also note the many scholars and practitioners who have defined...Continue reading

    Lars Klüver, is a skilled innovator, designer and convenor of public deliberations and has been for more than 30 years. His work with the Danish Board of Technology, was an early inspiration for many deliberative designers with his Consensus Conference method—a modification of an approach used in the US among scientists. Klüver understood...Continue reading

    In this episode, Carson speaks with Professor John Gastil from Penn State University about the history and development of deliberative mini-publics. John is the author of many books and papers on deliberative democracy including Democracy in Small Groups and is currently undertaking research on the Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review and has a book...Continue reading

    Hans-Liudger Dienel spoke with Carson about the work of his father Peter Dienel who developed the planning cells model of deliberative engagement in the early 1970s and which Hans has continued to work with through the Nexus Institute in Germany. Hans identifies that his father was a missionary for planning cells. Planning cells began...Continue reading

  Ned Crosby is the American inventor of Citizens’ Juries. He and his wife Pat Benn have supported and developed these processes over many years. In this interview, he and Pat talk about the development of the process, its refinement over the years and the more recent development of Citizens’ Initiative Review in Oregon. Ned...Continue reading