Myself and @gracecooper1.bsky.social presented our paper on climate mini-public professionals in the UK, which uses a qualitative social network analysis to understand the dynamics behind deliberative standards and practices. Massive thanks to everyone who spoke to us and engaged with this research!
Back from a fun week in Greece for @ecpr.bsky.social 's General Conference! It was great to hear such interesting research on democratic innovations, particularly surrounding intersectionality, institutionalisation and new understandings of the political economy of the field.
(🧵6) Together, these justifications reveal tensions organisers navigate:
⚖️ neutrality vs partisanship
⚡ urgency vs incrementalism
🌱 optimism vs realism
(🧵5) Finally, by involving a representative group of citizens, organisers hope to build legitimacy, consensus, and support for difficult climate policies.
(🧵4) Second, mini-publics are presented as ways to repair local democracy, pioneer new methods of citizen engagement, and rebuild trust.
(🧵3) By analysing 267 documents (reports, council minutes, press releases, etc.), I identified three key justifications. First, that organisers stress the need to act now, framing mini-publics as rapid, solution-finding tools in response to the climate emergency.
(🧵2) Most research looks at what happens inside the room: inclusiveness, deliberation quality, or policy outcomes. My article instead looks backstage: the political justifications organisers give when creating climate mini-publics.
(🧵1) Across the UK since 2019, over 60 local governments and organisations have run climate mini-publics, otherwise known as citizens’ assemblies or juries that deliberate on climate policy. 🌍
But why do organisers set them up in the first place?
My first paper is out in @bjpir.bsky.social ! 🎉 It looks at a novel dataset of local climate mini-publics in the UK, and how organisers justify their implementation. Full paper: journals-sagepub-com.libproxy.york.ac.uk/doi/epub/10....
Another very busy #PSA25 conference over :)
Started the week by officially joining the @psa-parliaments.bsky.social team. Chaired an excellent panel on Parliament as a workplace, and then presented with @katelong.bsky.social on our upcoming paper on climate mini-publics