Deliberative Democracy and Climate Change: Theory Meets Practice

Wednesday, June 13, 8:45-10:15 AM

John Dryzek (Australian National University)
Genevieve Fuji-Johnson (Simon Fraser University)
David Kahane (University of Alberta/ABCD)
Mark Warren (University of British Columbia)

Stakeholders and Citizens in Alberta Environmental Policy Making

Thursday, June 14, 10:30-noon

Laurie Adkin (University of Alberta)
David Kahane (University of Alberta)
John Parkins (University of Alberta)
Genevieve Fuji-Johnson (Simon Fraser University)
Lorna Stefanick (Athabasca University)

Successes and Challenges in Innovative Public Involvement: The Case of Edmonton’s Environmental Strategic Plan

Friday, June 15, 3:15-4:45

Fiona Cavanagh (Centre for Public Involvement, Edmonton)
Lorelei Hanson (Athabasca University)
Don Iveson (Edmonton City Councilor)
David Kahane (University of Alberta)
Jesse Row (Pembina Institute)

*All panels will be on UofA main campus – rooms to be confirmed

Interested in Attending?
ABCD will be arranging a limited number of guest passes to allow our community partners to attend these panel discussions. Contact our office for details. Individuals employed in an academic position can register on the CPSA website.

This issue covers:

• details of our citizen deliberation planned for Fall 2012, partnered with the Centre for Public Involvement and the City of Edmonton
• three ABCD hosted panel discussions at the June 2012 CPSA Annual Conference
• John Gaventa’s February 2012 visit to Edmonton
• Learning event for municipal staff members of Red Deer, AB
• and more!

Also view our ABCD Newsletter Archive.

The Alberta Climate Dialogue just released a series of short videosexploring the benefits of deliberative democracy, featuring well known practitioners such as Matt Leighninger (DDC), Janette Hartz-Karp (Curtin University), Edward Andersson (Involve UK) and others. These insightful snapshots of public engagement knowledge and case studies are a valuable resource for communicating deliberative democracy ideas to others:

• Deliberative democracy strategies – Matt Leighninger, DDC
• Nudge, Think, Shove – Edward Andersson, Involve UK
• City of Geraldton case study – Janette Hartz-Karp, Curtin University
• Design choices for deliberation – Jacquie Dale, One World Inc.
• Edmonton citizen panel case study – Fiona Cavanagh, CPI

These presentations were timely contributions to the City of Edmonton’s explorations on how public engagement can contribute to the City’s strategic environmental plan, The Way We Green. Watch these presentations by an elected official and senior administrator:

• Citizen deliberation for climate and energy – Councillor Don Iveson
• Engaging the Public on City of Edmonton’s The Way We Green strategy – Jim Andrais, Office of the Environment

Finally, here are some introductory and summary remarks for the presentations:

• Opening remarks – David Kahane, ABCD Director
• Panel Reflections

From September 23rd to 25th, forty ABCD members from Australia, the U.K., the U.S., and all across Canada came together to discuss a wide range of approaches and possibilities for our future deliberations and supporting work. Highlights included having the opportunity to reconnect with a majority of the team, and having access to their collective brainpower!

On day one, presenters engaged ABCD members and guests from the City of Edmonton with group exercises and guided discussions; the goal being to include citizen deliberations in the City’s implementation plan for The Way We Green.

The remaining two days of activities included getting up to speed with established Action Teams and fostering emerging themes. On-going projects were reinforced with new members and ideas and new ABCD working groups formed that will have a chance to submit proposals for approval. A special addition to this year’s workshop was having graphic facilitator, Avril Orloff, join us to visually map our workshop discussions and collective goals in her unique style (see photos).

Coming away from the workshop we will now direct our energy into building deliberations in partnership with the City of Edmonton and the Centre for Public Involvement and take what is learned from this process to build our future deliberations. The incredible contributions made by all of our workshop participants will certainly lead to innovative research results in this field.

The Executive Committee is very thankful to all the workshop participants. We feel energized and excited to continue working on our upcoming ABCD deliberations and supporting projects.

Graphic recording by Avril Orloff- http://avrilorloff.com

ABCD’s Summer 2011 newsletter is now available! Read about our newest additions to governance, upcoming deliberations, annual workshop updates and details on the Historical Context Action Team. To see this and past issues, visit our newsletter archive here.

Presentation “Citizen Deliberation and Oil Sands Policy”