How to design spaces for deliberation?
On 10th April, join us for the launch of a new paper by DemNext's Cities Programme Lead James MacDonald-Nelson and Research Fellow Gustav Kjær Vad Nielsen
🏬 10 April 2025, 9.30-10.45 ET / 14.30-15.45 GMT / 15.30-16.45 CET
Join us for the launch of "Spaces for deliberation: Eight spatial qualities for designing deliberative assemblies", a new paper by DemocracyNext's Cities Programme Lead James MacDonald-Nelson, and research fellow Gustav Kjær Vad Nielsen.
Today, most citizens’ assemblies are taking places in Parliament and Council rooms, university or conference spaces. Sometimes they’re in museums or libraries or other public buildings. Often, these spaces that are not designed for deliberation. Practitioners are needing to adapt to what they can work with.
But as more citizens’ assemblies are happening and are being institutionalised, we need to think seriously about the design of the physical spaces where they are held.
As more assemblies also have tech enhancements, we also need to consider the implications on spatial design.
MacDonald-Nelson and Nielsen bring their multiple hats to this important inquiry: as architects, researchers, and citizens’ assembly designers.
Drawing on the literature and interviews with deliberative democracy practitioners in six countries, they propose eight considerations for optimal spatial qualities needed for high-quality deliberative assemblies.
They’ll be in conversation with three of the practitioners interviewed - Johan Galster from We Do Democracy in Denmark, Felipe Rey from iDeemos Lab in Colombia, and Sarah Yaffe from MASS LBP in Canada. 🇩🇰🇨🇴🇨🇦
Whether you're organising citizens' assemblies or interested in democratic innovation, this conversation offers insights for creating environments where diverse citizens can effectively deliberate on society's challenges.
We look forward to seeing you there!
📡 What’s on our radar
👏 Congratulations to our International Advisory Council Member, David Van Reybrouck, for being nominated as the "Thinker of the Year" in Belgium and the Netherlands for the next two years. His trailblazing work to get the G1000 off the ground in 2011 when Belgium had no government for over 500 days - bringing together 1,000 randomly selected citizens to set a governing agenda - has planted the seed for ambitious democratic reforms in Belgium and globally.
🌳 Written late last year, Climate Assemblies and the Law: A Research Roadmap by Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli, King's College London, explores the intersection of citizens' assemblies on climate change (or "climate assemblies") and the law. This work presents a comprehensive research roadmap that delves into the legal aspects of climate assemblies, aiming to deepen our understanding of deliberative climate governance.
🌎 Interested in learning about the top 10 global cultural trends in cities? You can explore the World Cities Culture Forum’s report here. We found it insightful to reflect on how many of these trends will influence our Cities Programme. The report is based on discussions and insights from the World Cities Culture Summit 2024, hosted by Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, with the theme: “Tomorrow’s Culture: How Will the Next Generation Shape Our World?”
📖 Award-winning author and our Economic Institutions Fellow, Michael McCarthy, has published a new book: The Master's Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (And a Radical Plan to Rebuild It). McCarthy looks at how to democratise finance with the principles behind citizens’ assemblies – sortition, deliberation, and rotation of power..
Our founder and CEO, Claudia Chwalisz, says, “This book is an original intellectual contribution to the timely debates about democratising finance. It offers a new framework featuring governance processes that centre deliberation and sortition (the random selection of decision makers). Michael A. McCarthy makes a compelling case for shifting who has decision-making power, and how decisions are taken in financial institutions. An essential read.”
🐝 Upcoming events this spring
🎤 April 14th - 16th, Birmingham, UK
Lucy Reid, COO of DemocracyNext, will be speaking at the Political Studies Association’s (PSA) Annual Conference in Birmingham. Reid will take part in a panel discussion after Professor Nicole Curato’s keynote speech on Wednesday 16 April.
Curato, who is one of our International Advisory Council Members, will lay out the possibilities for a truly global deliberative democracy confronting the ‘broligarchy’. Her research highlights the transformative power of deliberative governance in fragile and conflict-affected settings. She investigates the conditions that empower marginalised communities to assert their voices in policymaking and implementation to secure better outcomes. Her recent work explores the possibilities of building a "global deliberative democracy," drawing on decolonial theory, critical historiography, and ambitious democratic experiments such as the Global Citizens’ Assembly for People and Planet.