Deliberation about difficult issues
In this frontier we aim to improve understanding in countries of the Global South about deliberation in difficult circumstances and on difficult issues in collaboration with practitioners, researchers and governments. Our work focuses on documenting knowledge, generating new knowledge and evaluating practical trials and implementations.
Living guidebook
We are working on a guide that gathers all the information we have gathered in our workshops through the work of several organizations and experts from all over the world. Soon you will be able to review the contents of our guide. In the meantime we present our table of contents. We would be delighted if you could also support us in its development as a co-author. To do so, you can take part in the following workshops that we will be conducting.
Table of contents of our living guidebook
1. Project definition
2. Introduction to deliberation
3. What do we mean by difficult?
a) Introduction.
b) What makes an issue difficult?
c) What we do not cover (context)
4. Examples
5. Learnings
a) One for “difficulty”.
b) What we don’t know.
c) Developing a “methodology”.
6. Summary
Activities
a. Workshop
This committee will conduct workshops focused on understanding what is a deliberation on difficult issues that answer the following questions:
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What do we mean by difficult deliberation?
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How is difficult deliberation different from difficult politics?
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What are some of the reasons why deliberation can be difficult?
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In what situations might “difficulty” arise?
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What can be done to solve these problems? What are their root causes?
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What can be learned from the experiences of those working in these situations?
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What unique role can deliberation play in these situations?
The first workshop will be held in person at the Democracy R&D meeting in Copenhagen.
b. New tools
We are currently developing new tools to implement successful processes of deliberative democracy in the Global South, focused on difficult issues about which deliberation seems impossible. Soon you will be able to review these tools that will be available for you to incorporate into your own projects.
c. Support to other projects
We are currently looking for projects from the Global South that we can support by evaluating and generating methodological recommendations. If you have projects where difficult issues are being addressed and need support, or have best practices you would like to share, please contact us.
d. Webinars
We will be holding a series of webinars in which experts from around the world will participate and reflect on this frontier. Stay tuned for all the information on this activity.
Blog
Here you will find the latest developments about this frontier including new experiences, relevant news and academic publications that are in sync with the work of our project.