The Scope of Climate Assemblies: Lessons from the Climate Assembly UK

Carrick, Jayne; Farrell, David M.; Mockler, Patricia

doi:10.3390/su132011272

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…For the participatory advisory panel, the output is almost always a concrete set of considerations or recommendations that are created and voted on by participants. This can be as short as a one-page summary, as with the Citizens’ Initiative Review (Gastil & Knobloch, 2019) or it can be an extensive report, as with many citizens’ assemblies, such as Climate Assembly UK (Elstub et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The internal dynamics of “scaling up” deliberative mini-publics

Rountree

Anderson²,

Reedy

et al. 2022

Communication and the Public

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Recent deliberative systems research has emphasized the need to “scale up” deliberative mini-publics by exploring connections between mini-publics and broader arenas of policymaking. Less is known, however, about how the policy environment in a state or region might itself influence a deliberative event. In this article, we set out to examine how the internal dynamics of mini-publics are affected by the scaling-up process of connecting to larger policymaking domains. To better understand how the external role of deliberation affects the internal dynamics, we analyze two notable cases of deliberative forums addressing public problems. In both cases, the 2017 Our Coastal Future Forum in South Carolina and the 2020 Oregon Citizens’ Assembly on coronavirus disease-19 recovery, citizen participants grappled with the challenge of scaling up to larger policy outcomes. We conduct a thematic analysis of transcripts from both events, focusing on how citizens discuss their role in influencing policy and talk about the potential for policy output from the mini-publics. The analysis reveals that the scaling-up process invites a pragmatic orientation within deliberation, centering on issues of efficiency, scope, and efficacy.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The internal dynamics of “scaling up” deliberative mini-publics

Rountree

Anderson²,

Reedy

et al. 2022

Communication and the Public

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The first time climate was dealt with by a national‐level citizens' assembly was as part of the Irish Citizens' Assembly 2016–2018, more famous for its recommendation on the constitutional status of abortion. The main wave of assemblies began 2 years later with the French Citizens' Convention for the Climate (Torney, 2021) starting its work in October 2019 and Climate Assembly UK (CAUK) in January 2020 (Elstub et al, 2021). Since then, national climate assemblies have been organized in Scotland, Denmark, and Germany.…”

Section: Methods and Cases: Analyzing National Climate Assemblies Acr...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating citizen deliberation into climate governance: Lessons on robust design from six climate assemblies

Dean

Smith

2022

Public Administration

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Recent years have seen a "wave" of national climate assemblies, which bring together randomly-selected citizens to deliberate and make recommendations on aspects of the climate crisis. Assessments of the legitimacy of these interventions and their capacity to improve climate governance have focused on their internal design characteristics, but the fundamental question of how they are integrated into complex constellations of political and policy institutions is underexplored. This article constructs a framework for understanding their integrative design characteristics, drawing on recent work on "robust governance." The framework is used to explore the connection of six national-level climate assemblies with political institutions, public debate, and civil society. Our findings highlight significant variety in the integrative design of these climate assemblies. This variety challenges the view of assemblies as a standardized object with predictable effects on legitimacy and governance capacity, while also refining deliberative systems theory's highly abstracted conceptions of integration and impact. | INTRODUCTIONClimate assemblies-deliberative mini-publics (DMPs:Table 1) that bring together randomly-selected people to learn, deliberate and make recommendations on aspects of the climate crisis-are gaining in salience as an innovative

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“…Another increasingly popular strategy to broaden civic engagement and decision making around climate change is the use of citizen assemblies—forums comprising a diverse and representative subset of a community convened to discuss and develop policy recommendations (Elstub et al, 2021). This type of “mini public” has been successfully used in various countries such as the United Kingdom and France, and is gaining interest in the United States, with the state of Washington having held the first assembly in the country in early 2021 (Godwin, 2021).…”

Section: Three Problematic Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building diverse climate coalitions: The pitfalls and promise of equity- and identity-based messaging.

Tsai¹,

Pearson²

2022

Translational Issues in Psychological Science

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In response to the largest climate demonstrations in history and growing recognition of the disproportionate impacts of climate change on disadvantaged communities, environmental organizations are increasingly looking to diversify their memberships and enhance public outreach. In this review, we consider unique challenges inherent in building racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse climate coalitions and highlight three often implicit assumptions that may undermine the effectiveness of equity-and identity-based climate communications and public outreach efforts: (a) that prodiversity messaging is viewed as inclusive by both racial and ethnic majority and minority groups; (b) that making specific identity groups salient will engage targeted individuals; and (c) that enhancing the salience of climate-related inequities bolsters public support for efforts to reduce those inequities. Drawing from psychological research and theory as well as real-world examples, we discuss problems with each of these assumptions, highlight current knowledge gaps, and offer practical recommendations for more effectively tailoring communications to broaden public engagement across differences.What is the significance of this article for the general public?The present review suggests that many appeals designed to promote diversity and broaden public engagement may in fact impede the formation and growth of racially and socioeconomically diverse climate coalitions. We highlight three tacit assumptions often present in equity-and identity-based organizational communications that may undermine their effectiveness. We offer practical recommendations for strengthening inclusive messaging and enhancing public support for equity-based climate policies and initiatives.

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The Scope of Climate Assemblies: Lessons from the Climate Assembly UK

Cited by 25 publications

References 35 publications

The internal dynamics of “scaling up” deliberative mini-publics

The internal dynamics of “scaling up” deliberative mini-publics

Integrating citizen deliberation into climate governance: Lessons on robust design from six climate assemblies

Building diverse climate coalitions: The pitfalls and promise of equity- and identity-based messaging.

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