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< Back UPCOMING: DOES FOOD DEMOCRACY MATTER? LINKING THE DELIBERATIVE QUALITY OF SOY AND COFFEE VALUE CHAINS TO ECOLOGICAL 'FOODPRINTS' The global food system is facing a multiple sustainability crisis. Agri-food value chains are among the main drivers of humanity’s overstepping the planetary boundaries related to climate change, loss of biodiversity (genes, species, and habitats) deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution, and nutrient imbalances. At the same time, key food producers like small- and medium-scale farmers are being driven from their land as a result of expanding extractivist resource use and highly asymmetric market access. Among the root causes of the global food system’s sustainability crisis are the multidimensional and increasingly asymmetric power relations – defined as the uneven capacity to influence goals, processes, and outcomes of governance – between the actors involved. Peasant communities, family farmers, rural workers, women, small-scale traders, artisanal food processors, and resource-poor consumers remain widely excluded from the decision-making processes through which agri-food value chains are governed. Deliberation – citizens’ political conversation and collective decision-making – has been described as a “partial antidote” to unequal power relations and as an important lever for rendering decision-making less power-driven. Democracy research argues that deliberation brings to the fore public goods and society’s ecological interests. However, empirical knowledge supporting these claims in the context of food and agriculture is scarce. This research aims at understanding whether and how deliberation affects ecological outcomes (“foodprints”) of soy and coffee value chains and power asymmetries among their key actors. Specific aims are to (1) determine the deliberative quality of selected agri-food value chains; (2) understand the implications of varying degrees of deliberation for power relations among key actors; (3) assess the selected agri-food value chains’ ecological foodprints; and (4) determine how deliberative quality relates to power asymmetries and ecological foodprints. We take a mixed-methods approach in four interlinked research streams: (1) Deliberative quality, comprising analysis of soy and coffee value chains and their key actors, institutional analysis, and discourse analysis to determine deliberative spaces and deliberative quality, and (2) Power asymmetries, focusing on whether and how the deliberative quality of agri-food value chains affects power asymmetries from key actors’ perspective – with semi-structured interviews, participant observation, focus groups, and document review applied in both streams; (3) Ecological foodprints, comprising life cycle inventories to measure the selected value chains’ resource use intensity, land use, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste/nutrient management, using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, as well as document and database review; and (4) Integration, applying process tracing to infer causal relationships between deliberative quality, power asymmetries, and ecological foodprints. BIO Dr. Johanna Jacobi is an Assistant Professor for Agroecological Transitions at ETH Zürich. She studied Geography, Biology and Social Anthropology. Her master thesis investigated wastewater-irrigated agrobiodiversity in peri-urban agriculture in Hyderabad, India. For her PhD studies at the University of Bern, she conducted research on the resilience of cocoa farms in Bolivia to climate change. In a post-doctoral project at UC Berkeley, she focused on agroforestry in Bolivia, where she then lived and worked in a transdisciplinary action- research project for several years. Her research focuses on agroecology as a transformative science, a practice and a social movement, and on power relations in food systems with approaches and methods from political ecology. Johanna Jacobi is also a member of the Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology (SOCLA). Previous Next

< Back Mara Hernandez Associate About Mara Hernandez pioneered the design and facilitation of multi-stakeholder dialogue and consensus-based coalition building in Mexico, on issues of public policy such as environmental management, human rights and public security.

< Back Deliberative Systems in Theory and Practice Edited By Stephen Elstub, Selen A. Ercan, and Ricardo Fabrino Mendonça 2018 , Routledge ​ Summary Deliberative democracy is an approach to democracy that requires collective decision-making to be preceded by reasoned, inclusive, and respectful debate for it to be legitimate. It has become an increasingly dominant approach to democracy over the last few decades. In recent years, there has been a particular focus on ‘deliberative systems.’ A systemic approach to deliberative democracy opens up a new way of thinking about public deliberation in both theory and practice. It suggests understanding deliberation as a communicative activity that occurs in a diversity of spaces, and emphasizes the need for interconnection between these spaces. It offers promising solutions to some of the long-standing theoretical issues in the deliberative democracy literature such as legitimation, inclusion, representation, as well as the interaction and interconnection between public opinion formation and decision-making sites more generally. The deliberative systems approach also offers a new way of conceptualizing and studying the practice of deliberation in contemporary democracies. Despite its conceptual and practical appeal, the concept of deliberative systems also entails potential problems and raises several important questions. These include the relationship with the parts and the whole of the deliberative system, the prospects of its institutionalization, and various difficulties related to its empirical analysis. The deliberative systems approach therefore requires greater theoretical critical scrutiny, and empirical investigation. This book contributes to this endeavour by bringing together cutting edge research on the theory and practice of deliberative systems. It will identify the key challenges against the concept to enhance understanding of both its prospects and problems promoting its refinement accordingly. The chapters originally published as a special issue in Critical Policy Studies. Read more Previous Next

< Back Andrew Knops Associate About Andrew Knops' interests lie broadly in political sociology, especially the theory and practice of democracy, although he also teaches research methods. He is a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Birmingham.

< Back Adele Webb Research Fellow About Dr Adele Webb is Research Fellow in Democracy and Citizen Engagement at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance. Working at the intersection of political sociology, political theory and empirical political science, Adele 's research considers how citizens think about democracy, and how historical experiences and subjectivities affect people's engagement with democratic processes. Her current work develops theoretical and empirical contributions on the causes and consequences of political ambivalence. She has also published on Philippine politics, Populism, and Post-Colonial Theory. Her first monograph, Chasing Freedom: The Philippines’ Long Journey to Democratic Ambivalence , was published in 2022 by Liverpool University Press and Ateneo de Manila University Press. At the Centre, Adele leads the flagship 'Connecting to Parliament' initiative, which seeks to connect more Australians to democratic processes through facilitating deliberative engagements with elected officials. She is current convenor of the Co-design and Deliberative Engagement unit in the Master of Public Policy. She maintains an active profile in public engagement and has a track record of disseminating her research findings through high impact media commentary. After completing her PhD at the University of Sydney in 2019, Adele held positions at Heidelberg University, Griffith University and Queensland University of Technology. Previously, Adele worked for almost a decade in the International Development sector, including six years as Executive Director of Sydney-based NGO Jubilee Australia. She maintains an interest in activism around global justice, has consulted for the UNESCAP and Griffith Asia Institute, and currently sits on the Research Committee of Jubilee Australia Research Centre. Key Publications Webb, A (2022). Chasing Freedom: The Philippines’ Long Journey to Democratic Ambivalence . Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Webb, A and Curato, N. (2019). Populism in the Philippines, in Populism Around the World: A Comparative Perspective, D. Stockemer (ed.). Cham: Springer Nature, pp39-65. Webb, A (2018). In Praise of Democratic Ambivalence. Democratic Theory, 5(2), pp17-36. Webb, A (2017). Why Are the Middle Class Misbehaving? Exploring Democratic Ambivalence and Authoritarian Nostalgia. Philippine Sociological Review, Vol. 65 Special Issue, pp77-102. Full list of publications available here . Public Engagement The P.I Podcast. ‘Democracy in the Middle – On Democratic Ambivalence and the Middle Class – An interview with Adele Webb’. 19 November 2022. Coral Bell School, Department of Political and Social Change, ANU: ‘Chasing Freedom: The Philippines’ Long Journey to Democratic Ambivalence’. 28 September 2022. Australian High Commission, Singapore: ‘Regional Reflections on the Russia-Ukraine Conflict: diplomacy, conflict and the future of Southeast Asia’, Policy Forum – Australian Institute for International Affairs, 20 June 2022. ABC TV News. “How Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos is leading the Philippines’ Presidential election”, 10 May 2022. The Interpreter, Lowy Institute. “What a Marcos Jr presidency in the Philippines means for geopolitics”, 13 May 2022. The Interpreter, Lowy Institute. “How the Marcos family could rule again in the Philippines”, 18 March 2022. Australian Catholic University: ‘Have we seen peak democracy?’, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Forum, 25 March 2022. New Books Network: New Books in Southeast Asian Studies. ‘Chasing Freedom: The Philippines’ Long Journey to Democratic Ambivalence – An interview with Adele Webb’, 1 March 2022.

< Back Deliberative policy analysis: What are its conditions of possibility? Hendrik Wagenaar, University of Sheffield Tue 11 April 2017 11:00am - 12:00pm The Dryzek Room, Building 22, University of Canberra Abstract In the Introduction to our book Deliberative Policy Analysis Maarten Hajer and I posed the question: What kind of policy analysis might be relevant to understanding governance in the emerging network society. Our answer was: a policy analysis that is interpretive, practice-oriented, and deliberative. Although I do not claim that DPA has become a school or a household term, the different elements we listed have separately all made great strides in policy analysis in the past 15 years. Interpretive policy analysis has its own journal, conferences and sections in academic organizations; practice theory in policy analysis has taken off and diversified, and deliberation as a policy-analytic approach can be found in ideals of action research and co-producing research with stakeholders. But is DPA possible as an integrated package? To obtain an answer to this question I want to discuss a case of failed DPA: my three-year international comparative study of prostitution policy in the Netherlands and Austria. We tried to apply the full package. Over a period of four years, the study was developed and executed in close cooperation with local policy makers, had a strong interpretive component, zoomed in on administrative practices, yet it ended – at least on the Dutch side – in conflict and acrimony. I would like to use the seminar to explore what went wrong and if we can identify the conditions for successful DPA in real-word policy settings. About the speaker Hendrik Wagenaar is professor at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield. He is also Associate Director of the Crick Centre for Understanding Politics at that university. He publishes in the areas of participatory democracy, prostitution policy, interpretive policy analysis and practice theory. He is author of Meaning in Action: Interpretation and Dialogue in Policy Analysis (M.E. Sharpe, 2011), and co-editor of Practices of Freedom: Decentered Governance, Conflict and Democratic Participation (Cambridge University Press, 2014) He is member of the core group, and one of the chairs of Working Group 1 (Policy and Politics) of the COST Action: ‘Comparing European Prostitution Policies’. His book Designing Prostitution Policy: Intention and Reality in Regulating the Sex Trade (with Helga Amesberger and Sietske Altink) will be published by Policy Press in April 2017. Previous Next

Seminar Series Join our seminar series on Tuesdays from 11:00 am until 12:00 pm. These seminars are hybrid, held both in Fishbowl at Building 24 and online. Before each session, we gather for the Centre’s weekly morning tea at 10:30 am in the Retro Cafe located at Building 23. Below, you can watch our recorded seminars, including those hosted and co-hosted by the Centre since April 2020. To access past seminars, please visit our archives . If you have any questions about the seminar series, please contact our Seminar Coordinator, Ferdinand Sanchez II at ferdinand.sanchez@canberra.edu.au . Play Video Play Video Are mini-publics enough to promote deliberative democracy? Play Video Play Video Can deliberative democracy take root in settler colonial states? Play Video Play Video How can deliberative democracy listen to nonhumans? Play Video Play Video Between Imagination and Constraint, Alfred Moore, 5 December 2023 Play Video Play Video Democratising transnational deliberation from inside, Roundtable discussion, 6 December 2023 Play Video Play Video Embodying radical democracy, Moya Lloyd, 21 November 2023 Play Video Play Video Transnational citizens' assemblies, Canning Malkin and Franziska Maier, 21 November 2023 Play Video Play Video Intersectionality and Democracy, Afsoun Afsahi, 14 November 2023 Play Video Play Video The Politics of Becoming: Anonymity and Democracy in the Digital Age Play Video Play Video Politicization in the era of ‘hypervisibility’, Taina Meriluoto, 7 November 2023 Play Video Play Video Beyond the binary: abolishing the legal status of gender?, Anne Phillips, 31 October 2023 Play Video Play Video Participatory Governance Seminar: Roads to Minipublic Success Play Video Play Video Deliberative Democratic Constitutional Referendums, Hoi Kong, 3 October 2023 Play Video Play Video Unpacking power in democratic innovations, Anne Nygaard Jedzini, 26 September 2023 Play Video Play Video Participation as Assemblage, Sonia Bussu, 19 September 2023 Load More Recorded Seminars Participedia Seminars PAST SEMINARS Past Seminars

< Back Lyn Carson Associate About Lyn Carson has taught and researched in the field of deliberative democracy, asking how the wider public can help to resolve policy challenges. She was involved in convening Australia's first Consensus Conference, the first Deliberative Polls, the first Australian Citizens' Parliament, and numerous Citizens' Juries and Community Summits.

< Back Nitya Reddy Research Intern About Nitya Reddy examined international best practices in countering violent extremism to inform recommendations for government agencies and civil society organizations involved in countering violent extremism in Australia. She joined the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance in 2022 as a research intern. Nitya is studying a Bachelor’s Degree in Politics and International Relations.

< Back Deliberative Minipublics: Core Design Features Curato, N., Farrell D., Geißel, B., Grönlund, K., Mockler, P., Renwick, A., Rose, J., Setälä, M. and Suiter, J. 2021 , Bristol Policy Press ​ Summary Bringing together ten leading researchers in the field of deliberative democracy, this important book examines the features of a Deliberative Mini-Public (DMP) and considers how DMPs link into democratic systems. It examines the core design features of DMPs and their role in the broader policy process and takes stock of the characteristics that distinguish them from other forms of citizen participation. In doing so, the book offers valuable insights into the contributions that DMPs can make not only to the policy process, but also to the broader agenda of revitalising democracy in contemporary times. Read more Previous Next

Working Paper Series The Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance working paper series makes preliminary findings of research on deliberative democracy publicly available in advance of publication in journals and books. The series aims to present new research that makes original, high-quality contributions to the theory and practice of deliberative democracy informed by recent literature in the field. The working paper series is co-edited by Jordan McSwiney, Wendy Conway-Lamb, and Ferdinand Sanchez. Contributions to the series are welcomed from staff members, associates and visitors of the Centre. To propose a paper for inclusion in the series, please contact: Jordan McSwiney Postdoctoral Research Fellow jordan.mcswiney@canberra.edu.au 2024/1 Hans Asenbaum, Nicole Curato, Bonny Ibhawoh, Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Justin McCaul and Ricardo F. Mendonça "Can Deliberative Democracy be Decolonized? A Debate" 2023/2 Lucy Parry "Integrity Challenges in Deliberative Mini-Publics" 2023/1 Mathias Poulsen "Playful Democratic Assemblages" 2022/2 Marie-Isabel Theuwis & Rosa Kindt "Through the Looking Glass" 2022/1 Nick Vlahos "Democratic Restructuring and the Triaging Functions of an Urban Deliberative System". 2021/4 Simon Niemeyer, Francesco Veri, John S. Dryzek and Andre Bachtiger "How Deliberation Happens: Enabling and Activating Deliberative Reasoning". (Published in APSR) 2021/3 John Rountree and Nicole Curato "Citizens' Assemblies and the Public Sphere". 2021/2 Antonin Lacelle Webster "The Political Problem of Hope and its Deliberative Manifestation". 2021/1 Pierrick Chalaye "The Discursive Sources of Environmental Progress and its Limits: Biodiversity Politics in France". 2020/3 Kei Nishiyama, Wendy Russell and Pierrick Chalaye "The Interplay of Facilitative Technique and Design to Increase Inclusiveness." 2020/2 Parry, Lucy J. and Ercan, Selen A. "Using Participedia to study the impacts of mini-publics.” 2019/6 Christoph Niessen and Min Reuchamps "Designing a permanent deliberative citizens' assembly." 2019/5 David M. Farrell, Nicole Curato, John S. Dryzek, Brigitte Geißel, Kimmo Grönlund, Sofie Marien, Simon Niemeyer, Jean-Benoit Pilet, Alan Renwick, Jonathan Rose, Maija Setälä, and Jane Suiter. "Deliberative Mini-Publics: Core Design Features." 2019/4 Niemeyer, Simon. "Intersubjective Reasoning in Political Deliberation: A Theory and Method for Assessing Deliberative Transformation at Small and Large Scale." 2019/3 Pickering, Jonathan. "Deliberative Ecologies: Engaging Complexity Theory to Understand How Deliberative Systems Emerge and Change." 2019/2 Alver, Jane. "Developing a Regional Voice Through a Feminist Forum: The Case of the Pacific Feminist Forum." 2019/1 Curato, Nicole. "From Authoritarian Enclave to Deliberative Space: Governance Logics in Post-Disaster Reconstruction." (Published in Disasters) 2017/3 Asenbaum, Hans. "Revisiting E-Topia: Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings on Online Anonymity." 2017/2 Bhatia, Udit. "Cracking the Whip: The Deliberative Costs of Strict Party Discipline." (Published in CRISPP) 2017/1 Nishiyama, Kei. "Enabling Children's Deliberation Schools as a Mediating Space in Deliberative Systems." (Published in Journal of Youth Studies) 2016/2 Dryzek, John S. and Pickering, Jonathan. "Deliberation as a Catalyst for Reflexive Environmental Governance." (Published in Ecological Economics) 2016/1 Jennstål, Julia. "Deliberative Participation and Personality: The Effect of Traits, Situations and Motivation." 2015/1 Pickering, Jonathan. "Top-down proposals for sharing the global climate policy effort fairly: lost in translation in a bottom-up world?" (Published in Routledge) 2014/2 Curato, Nicole and Ong, Jonathan. "Inclusion as Deliberative Agency: The Selective Representation of Poor Women in Reproductive Health Debates." 2014/1 Jennstål, Julia and Simon Niemeyer. "The Deliberative Citizen: The Role of Personality and Context in Deliberative Behaviour." Load More Older Working Paper Series 2014/4 Smith, William. "Disrupting Deliberation: The Impact of Political Protest on Deliberative Systems.", University of Canberra, Canberra. Access > 2014/3 Parry, Lucy. "Q Study in Waiting.", University of Canberra, Canberra. (Published in British Politics) Access > 2013/1 Niemeyer, Simon, Andrea Felicetti & Olga Di Ruggero. "Provisional Report - Analysis of the Citizens’ Initiative Review.", The Australian National University, Canberra. Access > 2012/2 Batalha, Luisa, Simon Niemeyer, Nicole Curato, John Dryzek & John Gastil. "Group dynamics and deliberative processes: Cognitive and Affective aspects.", The Australian National University, Canberra. Access > 2012/1 Niemeyer, Simon. "Building the Foundations of Deliberative Democracy: The Deliberative Person.", The Australian National University, Canberra. Access > 2011/5 Stevenson, Hayley. "Democratising the Governance of Climate Technologies.", The Australian National University, Canberra. Access > 2011/4 Niemeyer, Simon, Kersty Hobson, Jacqui Russell, Imagen Ord-Evans, John Boswell & Elaine dos Santos. "Participant Recommendations and Report: Climate Change and the Public Sphere Project.", The Australian National University, Canberra. Access > 2011/3 Goodin, Robert. "Democratising International Law.", The Australian National University, Canberra. Access > 2011/2 Stephenson, Hayley and John Dryzek. "Democratising climate governance through discursive engagement.", The Australian National University, Canberra. Access > 2011/1 Stevenson, Hayley. "Representing "The Peoples"?.", The Australian National University, Canberra. Access > Load More

< Back Building Democratic Resilience - Report Launch ​ ​ On 13 October, we launched the report Building Democratic Resilience - Public Sphere Responses to Violent Extremism, commissioned by the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet. The launch took place at the ANU, hosted by the F reilich Project for the Study of Bigotry . Panelists included Dr Jordan McSwiney, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance (CDDGG) at the University of Canberra, Dr Emily Corner, Senior Lecturer of Criminology at the Centre for Social Research and Methods at the Australian National University, and Pia van de Zandt, Director of the Connected Communities team in Department of Premier and Cabinet, NSW. Pictured: Selen A. Ercan (CDDGG), Peter Balint (UNSW), Pia van de Zandt (NSW Government) and Jordan McSwiney (CDDGG)

< Back Nicole Curato Professor About Nicole Curato is a Professor at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Her work examines how deliberative politics can take root in the aftermath of tragedies using ethnographic methods. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in the Philippines in communities affected by disasters, armed conflict, and police brutality. She is the author of the prize-winning book Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedy to Deliberative Action (2019, Oxford University Press) and has published extensively in sociology, political science, and policy studies journals. She holds a distinct record of simultaneously serving as editor of three of the most important journals in the field. She is the lead editor of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy , co-editor of the Australian Journal of Political Science and associate editor of Political Studies . She is the founder and convener of the Deliberative Democracy Summer School, the co-chair of the European Consortium for Political Research’s Standing Group on Democratic Innovations and the founding member of the American Political Science Association’s related group on Democratic Innovations. Nicole is an engaged academic. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and the Brookings Institute’s Democracy in Asia series, among others . She hosts and writes her own television programme for CNN Philippines, collaborates with documentary filmmakers to produce immersive and socially relevant content for online streaming sites, and takes part in numerous speaking engagements on deliberative democracy, disinformation, and Philippine politics. She regularly provides briefing to policymakers and international aid agencies and engages in constant dialogue with civil society and activist groups. She tweets @NicoleCurato . Key Publications Curato, N., Farrell D., Geißel, B., Grönlund, K., Mockler, P., Renwick, A., Rose, J., Setälä, M. and Suiter, J. (2021) Deliberative Minipublics: Core Design Features. Bristol: Policy Press Curato, N. (2020) Assessing the poor’s deliberative agency in media-saturated societies. Theory and Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09421-1 Curato, N. (2019) Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedy to Deliberative Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Curato, N., Hammod, M. and Min, J.B. (2018) Power in Deliberative Democracy: Norms, Forums, Systems. New York: Palgrave. Curato, N. (ed) (2017) Duterte Reader: Critical Essays on Rodrigo Duterte’s Early Presidency. Ithaca: Cornell University Press/Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. Full list of publications available in GoogleScholar . Research grants (select list) Australian Research Council grants Lead Chief Investigator, Monitoring Deliberative Integrity in Australia (2021-2023). Funded by the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative. (AU$ 202,156) Chief Investigator, Global Citizen Deliberation: Analysing a Deliberative Documentary (2020-2022). Funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Project. (AU$439,000) Chief Investigator, Discovery Project (2018-2020) A Meta-Study of Democratic Deliberation: Updating Theory and Practice Funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project (AU$526,411) Lead Chief Investigator, Discovery Early Research Career Award (2015-2018) Building Back Better: Participatory Governance in a Post-Haiyan World Funded by the Australian Research Council (AU$324,557). International competitive grants Co-Investigator, Strongmen of Asia: Democratic bosses and how to understand them. Funded by the Norwegian Research Council (AU$1.8M via University of Oslo). Co-Investigator, Humanitarian Technologies: An Ethnographic Assessment of Communication Environments in Disaster Recovery and Humanitarian Intervention (2014-2015) Economic and Social Research Council (UK) Urgency Grant (£157,323.09/AU$267,524; via Goldsmiths University) PhD students Anne Nygaard Jedzini (Primary Supervisor) Mohammad Abdul-Hwas (Primary Supervisor) Nardine Alnemr (Secondary Supervisor) Emerson Sanchez (Secondary Supervisor) Roger B. Davies (Secondary Supervisor) Pia Rowe (Adviser, completed) Teaching Co-Convener, Investigating and Explaining Society, 2020-2022 Convener, Deliberative Democracy Internship Programme, 2019-present Founder and Convener, Deliberative Democracy Summer School, 2015-present Administration Communications Director of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance Prizes Virginia A. Miralao Book Prize 2020, awarded by the Philippine Social Sciences Council (2020) Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence, University of Canberra (2016, 2018) Broadcasters Association of the Philippines Prize for Best Television Special, Breaking Fake News for CNN Philippines (2018) Ten Outstanding Young Men (/People) of the Philippines for Public Sociology (2013) Overseas Research Award, UK funding for higher education (2007-2010) Graduate Teaching Scholarship, University of Birmingham (2007-2010) Public Engagement Resident Sociologist, writer and television presenter for CNN Philippines (2018-Present) Writer and host for FYT Media’s Insights (2019, available in iFlix streaming) Host and producer, Philippines Beyond Clichés Podcast, New Mandala (2018) Op-ed contributor to the New York Times, Al Jazeera English, Rappler.com, Asia Global Online, New Mandala, The Interpreter, and East Asia Forum, among others. Resource person for international media outlets including The New Yorker, BBC, ABC News Australia, Bloomberg, and France24, among others. Research cited over 50 times in international publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Huffington Post, Vice News, Buzz Feed, Deutsche Welle, and Reuters, among others.

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< Back Beyond Demagogues and Deplorables: Transforming populist rhetoric for participatory futures Investigator(s): Nicole Curato Funded through Toyota Foundation Research Grant Program 2017 ($20,270), the Project Team includes: Nicole Curato, Chief Investigator Bianca Ysabelle Franco, Research Associate Septrin John Calamba, Research Associate Project Description There are many reasons to think of populism as the opposite of reasonable discussion. Populism appeals to base instincts, sacrificing intellectual rigour in favour of quick solutions. Its polarising speech style creates information silos which inflames prejudices instead of promoting understanding. This project challenges the dichotomy between populism and reasonable discussion. It investigates how the rhetoric of populism can be transformed to meaningful political conversations. The vision is to find practical ways in which societies can be hospitable to inclusive, reflective, and other-regarding discussions amidst deep divisions. Attention is focused on the case of the Philippines under the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte, but the lessons can be applied to various contexts where populist rhetoric has gained traction. The strategy is simple. A series of deliberative forums will be convened where citizens can reflect on the character of political talk in the Philippines and propose possibilities for enhancing political discussions today. Findings from this citizen-driven forum will be used to forge conversations with government, media, and other stakeholders. Overall, the project aims to make an evidence-based contribution to the future of participatory communication in populist times.

< Back Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy Selen A. Ercan, Hans Asenbaum, Nicole Curato, Ricardo F. Mendonca 2022 , Oxford University Press ​ Summary Offers comprehensive coverage of 31 research methods written by a global and diverse line-up of scholars in the field. Covers a selection of both established social science methods and novel methodologies specifically developed to investigate deliberative democracy in practice. Read more Previous Next

< Back Democratic Transformations: A conversation on systemic change ​ ​ 6 February 2024 Juliet Room, Verity Lane Market, Sydney Building, 50 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra ACT Reception: 5:30 pm Panel discussion: 6:00 – 7:15 pm Democracies’ responses to environmental crises, health emergencies, and racial violence have been unsatisfactory, to say the least. Hyper-partisan politics have taken over our representative democracies, rendering our democratic institutions vulnerable to political deadlocks and cheap political point-scoring. While there are many reasons to lose trust in our democracy, there are also many reasons to fight for it. You are invited to join a conversation on how we can transform Australia’s democracy and chart pathways for systemic change. Our discussion will kick off with three international speakers who will share lessons from democratic innovations that have taken off all over the world and demonstrate how randomly selected citizen bodies, decolonising and anti-racist action, and listening to nature and nonhumans can transform democracies today. This will be followed by an open discussion, where audiences can propose their own ideas for democratic transformation. Speakers Hans Asenbaum is the author of The Politics of Becoming: Anonymity and Democracy in the Digital Age. He is senior research fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Yves Sintomer is the author of The Government of Chance Sortition and Democracy from Athens to the Present. He is a Professor of Political Science at the Institut Universitaire de France. Melissa Williams is the founding director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Ethics. She is the author and editor of numerous books, including Voice, Trust, and Memory: Marginalized Groups and the Failings of Liberal Representation. This event launches the new blog series on Democratic Transformations led by the Centre for Deliberative Democracy & Global Governance and the European Consortium for Political Research. Read the blog here . Registration is a must — secure your spot now through this link .

< Back Walter Baber Associate About Walter F. Baber is a professor in the Environmental Sciences and Policy Program and the Graduate Center for Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Long Beach. He is also a lead member of the Amsterdam-based Earth System Governance Project and an Affiliated Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University.

< Back Mohammad Abdul-Hwas PhD Candidate About Mohammad’s research focuses on refugee governance and deliberative democracy. His passion to study and research a refugees’ affairs is drawn from his family’s Palestinian heritage. Before moving to Australia, Mohammad completed his undergraduate degree in business at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He then worked at Fairfax Media and completed a Postgraduate Diploma at Massey University. In 2016, he completed his Master of Management from University of Canberra. It was while pursuing his master’s degree that Mohammad dove into the world of leadership and governance. Connecting with Syrian refugees drove Mohammad to research deliberative democracy, with the ambition to improve the experience and agency for people caught in a refugee crisis. Dissertation Mohammad’s PhD thesis is titled “The governance of refugees from a deliberative system perspective: The case of Syrian refugee crisis”. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) describes the Syrian refugee crisis as ‘the largest displacement crisis of our time’. Using a deliberative systems approach, the research demonstrates the various ways in which decisions that impact the lives of refugees are made. Deliberative system is a fitting approach to understand the relationship between vulnerable communities and decision-makers, particularly its normative emphasis on inclusiveness, authenticity, and consequentiality. Mohammad conducted eight weeks of extensive fieldwork in refugee camps and urban centres in Jordan to investigate all aspects that surround refugee’s governance and decision making. There are two key reasons for this research benefit. First, humanitarian actors hold power in managing the lives of refugees; It is worth investigating how they conduct politics, and whether their practices serve to promote decisions that are justifiable to those who will experience their impact. Second, refugee governance and deliberative democracy emerge from different traditions, these two fields are running on parallel tracks; They need to be connected to identify pathways by which refugees can gain voice and influence in shaping their future, and to investigate whether humanitarian actors can do better. PhD supervisors Nicole Curato (Primary Supervisor) Brendan McCaffrie (Secondary Supervisor) Teaching S EMESTER 2, 2023: Academic Tutor, University of Canberra Unit Title: Investigating and Explaining Society (11236.1) Organisation: Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society. Faculty of Business, Government & Law. University of Canberra, Australia. SEMESTER 2, 2023: Academic Tutor, University of Canberra Unit Title: Introduction to Public Policy (11378.1) Organisation: Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society. Faculty of Business, Government & Law. University of Canberra, Australia. SEMESTER 2, 2023: Academic Tutor-University of Canberra Accelerated Pathways program H course: Politics and Democracy (APP) (11846). Organisation: Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society. University of Canberra, Australia. SEMESTER 1, 2023: Academic Tutor-University of Canberra Unit Title: Political and Social Theory (11243.1) Organisation: Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society. Faculty of Business, Government & Law. University of Canberra, Australia. SEMESTER 2, 2022: Academic Marking-University of Canberra Unit Title: Introduction to International Relations (11238.1) Organisation: Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society. Faculty of Business, Government & Law. University of Canberra, Australia. Conference Presentations “The potential and limits of deliberative democracy in the governance of refugee crisis”. New Zealand Political Studies Association (NZPSA) Annual Conference, November 30, 2022. The University of Waikato, New Zealand (Virtual Conference). “Governance of refugee crisis from a deliberative approach: Focus on public and empowered spaces”. Australian Political Studies Association (APSA) Annual Conference, September 27, 2022. Australian National University, Australia. “Governing the Syrian refugee crisis: A deliberative assessment”. NEXT Generation Deliberation Celebration Symposium, June 10, 2021. KU Leuven University, Belgium (Virtual Conference). “The role of deliberation in governing the Syrian refugee crisis: Insights from the field”. Deliberative Democracy Seminar Series, October 6, 2020. University of Canberra, Australia. “Governing the Syrian refugee crisis: A deliberative perspective”. Australian Political Studies Association (APSA) Conference. September 18, 2020. Virtual Conference. “The role of deliberation in governance of the Syrian refugee crisis”. Deliberative Democracy Summer School. February 5, 2020. University of Canberra, Australia. Projects Mohammad is part of a global research team on the Global Assembly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Among the thirty researchers from different parts of the globe, he actively participated in observing deliberative engagement processes during the plenary sessions at Global Assembly COP26. Administration Co-organizer, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance’s Book reception 2022. Co-organizer, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance’s Book Harvest 2020.

< Back Institutionalising deliberative mini-publics in public decision-making Claudia Chwalisz, OECD Tue 3 December 2019 11:00am-12pm The Dryzek Room, Building 22, University of Canberra Abstract A forthcoming OECD study of over to 700 deliberative mini-publics raises new questions about their institutionalisation and the future of democracy. While there has been a proliferation of deliberative processes initiated by public authorities for decision-making over the past few decades, these have tended to remain ad hoc and dependent on political will. The remit of most deliberative processes has also been project-specific and there are few examples where citizens are able to set the agenda or define the problem. Their impact on improving citizens’ sense of agency and efficacy and increasing levels of trust, has thus remain limited. Recently, there has been some experimentation underway that aims to overcome some of these challenges, focused on embedding deliberative processes into public decision-making procedures. This seminar will explore two questions around this theme: why institutionalise, and what are the different forms of institutionalisation that are already happening, and that we could envisage? Previous Next