Anne Nygaard Jedzini is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She is the recipient of the ARC Special Research Initiative 2021 PhD Scholarship. Her research examines to what extent city councils in Australia can be an institution for deliberative power-sharing in the practise of institutionalised co-creation task committees between elected representatives and ordinary citizens.

Anne’s PhD extends on her MA thesis research project on institutionalised co-creation task committees in Danish and Australian city councils which she did as a part of her Master of International Relations at La Trobe University from 2019-2020. As a part of her MA thesis, she interviewed Danish and Australian councillors about their understanding and perceptions of co-creation with ordinary citizens in public policymaking. She currently has her first journal article on this topic under peer-review at a political science journal.

More broadly, Anne’s PhD is inspired by her lived experience from her home country Denmark where she held public office as Vice Mayor and councillor of Aarhus Municipality from 2014-2018. While serving as a councillor, she was a member of five political committees two of which were institutionalised co-creation task committees: The Civic Citizenship Committee and the Committee for Volunteering and Co-creation. This is where she first gained experience with deliberative power-sharing between elected representatives and ordinary citizens.

Anne has extensive experience from politics in Australia and Denmark. In Australia, she has interned in the federal parliament for the independent MP, Dr. Helen Haines. For the 2022 federal election, she assisted on Professor Kim Rubenstein's independent campaign for the Senate, particularly on the topic of deliberative democracy.

In Denmark, Anne has led and organised several political bipartisan campaigns as a part of the Danish local government elections in 2017 and 2013. These include Vote Aarhus, Your Voice, Your Municipality and Elect More Women.

In 2016, Anne assisted the U.S. Democratic Party in Florida on the presidential election campaign for Hillary Rodham Clinton. During the presidential election, she was a political commentor who was interviewed for both Danish and U.S. media such as Danish National Broadcasting and the Daily Beast.

Dissertation

Anne’s PhD dissertation aims to examine to what extent city councils in Australia can be an institution for deliberative power-sharing between elected representatives and ordinary citizens. The outcomes of it seek to contribute to the wider literature on power, power-sharing and deliberative and participatory governance in the context of democratic and political institutions in OECD countries.

Australia is a particularly relevant geographical case to explore in this context because there has been a rapid decrease in trust in politics and government throughout the last decade. This is reflected in the increase of democratic dissatisfaction, particularly in political leaders’ inability to address public policy issues, with less than four in ten citizens who trust local governments.

The use of power-sharing through the democratic innovation of institutionalisation of co-creation task committees can potentially contribute to higher trust for citizens in political leaders and public government institutions. This is because co-creation assumes the power that is shared between elected representatives and citizens is the power to directly impact political decision-making.

Australia is one of the leading OECD countries in representative deliberative processes or deliberative mini-publics, but they do not give citizens any binding power neither does it require elected representatives to implement the recommendations. Institutionalised co-creation task committees hence offers a novel and deliberative approach to trust building and power-sharing between elected representatives and ordinary citizens in Australian local governments.

Conference Presentations

• How do city council politicians understand and facilitate co-creation? An explorative study of Australian and Danish local governments. Summer School in Deliberative Democracy and Public Opinion Research, June 20-22, 2022, Turku, Finland.

• How do city council politicians understand and facilitate co-creation? An explorative study of Australian and Danish local governments. Transatlantic Dialogue 16, June 9-10, 2022, Roskilde, Denmark.

• How do city council politicians facilitate co-creation? Evidence from Australia and Denmark. Political organisations and Participation Workshop, February 16-17, 2022, Brisbane, Australia.

PhD supervisors

• Nicole Curato (Primary Supervisor)

• Selen Ercan (Secondary Supervisor)

Teaching

• Tutor, Introductions to Politics and Government. 2022-present.

• Tutor, Investigating and Explaining Society. 2021-present.

• Tutor, Political Leadership. 2021.

Administration

• Intern in the Parliament of Australia for Dr. Helen Haines MP Independent Member for Indi (House of Representatives), 2022.

• HDR Candidate Representative, Graduate Research Committee, University of Canberra, 2022-present.

• Project Manager, Australian Citizens’ Jury on Genome Editing, University of Canberra, 2021.

• Student Advisory Board Member, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, 2020.

• Master Student Board Member, Academic Board, La Trobe University, 2020.

Scholarships and Prizes

• Scholarship, ARC Special Research Initiative, 2021-present.

• Teaching Excellence Award (team), University of Canberra, 2021.

Public Engagement

• Course Contributor, Democratise Politics