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We're thrilled to kick off another edition of our newsletter. 📰
In this issue, we'll share some reflections from our network day earlier this month and more information on our upcoming events in Dublin in August.
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We're all ears! Use our submission form to share your events, resources and news because together, we're building a stronger, more inclusive democracy.
What does Better Democracy Mean Anyway?
Last week we hosted the second meeting of our new All-Island Better Democracy Network, which brings together individuals and organisations from across the island of Ireland with the common purpose of strengthening civic voice, active citizenship, and nurturing a healthier democracy.
Held in Belfast and co-hosted with theQUB Democracy Unit, this was the first in-person meeting of the Network since our launch in March. The first half of the day was for co-working and an Offers and NeedsMarket- a method developed by the Post Growth Institute, and facilitated by network member Kathryn Mc Cabe of the Change Agency.
Offers and Needs Market is a technique for relationship building and resource planning that goes deeper than a simple exchange of services; it is an opportunity to reflect on what kind of network we want to collectively create and how we want to work together to create it.
Networks can take a while to find their footing - they move at the speed of relationships - but understanding our motivations for joining and how we want them to feel is a great start.
Through the workshop, ideas emerged for mutual support through a community of practice, for fun and playfulness (rejecting the idea that democracy has to be serious), and thinking about democracy as a global challenge as well as a place-based one.
Members also felt that the Network needs to connect with ordinary people and to provide accessible information about democracy and the right to participate in decision-making on the island of Ireland. Members would like to see a map of democracy work across the island of Ireland. Finally, there were observations about the need for trust and transparency among members of the network, and a need for more proactive and less formal communication through channels such as WhatsApp.
The Network meeting was followed by a guest seminar from Dr Nivek Thompson, who was visiting Belfast from Australia, where she has a long career in the research and practice of deliberative democracy. Nivek’s presentation spoke to the crucial question of what we mean by ‘Better Democracy’ in the first place.
Nivek talked about how we might think about democracy as a system designed to solve particular problems, and that we can evaluate models (e.g. representative, direct, deliberative) methods (e.g. referendums, citizens’ assemblies), and institutions (e.g. parliaments, legislature) of democracy by looking at how effective they are at solving those problems, in other words how well they perform their democratic functions.
Specifically, Nivek looked at deliberative mini publics to understand how well they deliver inclusiveness, collective agenda-setting, collective will formation, collective decision-making, and accountability. We heard about four sub-national deliberative mini-publics that took place in Australia, and how we can learn from their set up to design democratic innovations so that they contribute to the quality of democracy.
These are crucial questions for us and we’ll be building on them when we meet again in August. This time, we’re heading to Dublin, generously hosted by Codemain their offices in Temple Bar.
DIY Democracy: Citizens' Assemblies from the Ground Up
Citizens' Assemblies are a powerful way of bringing diverse public voices together to carefully deliberate over complex social issues and come to a consensus about what needs to happen. They can overcome polarisation and make decisions that are based on the common good rather than individual self interest. However, they are complicated, expensive, and difficult to set up, creating barriers to access that limit who can commission them, the topics they deal with, and the implementation of what they recommend.
This workshop will explore ways of reducing those barriers while maintaining the legitimacy and quality of dialogue that makes citizens' assemblies such a powerful tool for collective decision making.
Rebekah McCabe from Involve will break down the features of a citizens' assembly and we'll play with ways of reconfiguring them so that democratic innovations are accessible to all.
This workshop will have a practical focus and will be of interest to anyone curious about the mechanics of citizens assemblies, or interested in public engagement and how they can bring more deliberative decision making to their work.
Member Survey
🗯️ Tell us a bit about yourself and what you would like from the network.
This survey captures network members' attitudes and perceptions of public participation and deliberative democracy on the island of Ireland.
We will use responses to better understand the needs of members, to evaluate the effectiveness of the network, and to demonstrate its value to members and funders at the end of the first year.
A community thrives on communication and sometimes it’s easier to send a text message to chat through ideas or tell someone about an event.
Join the All-Island Better Democracy Network WhatsApp Group here.
Are you a member?
You may be receiving this newsletter but aren't actually a member of the network. We'd love for you to join!
Please fill out the form here to become a member and let us know where you're coming from and what topics you are interested in.
Involve, Community House, City Link Business Park, 6A Albert St, Belfast, BT12 4HQ, Northern Ireland and, Involve, Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, London E2 6HG, United Kingdom
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