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ABCD Newsletter

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 Volume 1, Issue 4

Fall 2011
In This Issue
2011 Workshop
New Videos
Featured ABCD Student
Featured Action Team
Quick Links

 

John Gastil Visit

As a part of the University of Alberta's International Week 2012 - Living Democracy: Citizen Power in a Global Age - Prof. John Gastil will give a public talk on February 1st at 7pm. The location and other International Week programming will be posted shortly on their website.



Upcoming Event

The International conference on Culture, Politics, and Climate Change

September 13 - 15, 2012 Boulder, Colorado

 

This cross-disciplinary conference will explore intersections between culture, politics, and science in order to enhance understanding of public policy addressing climate change. Deadline to submit an abstract is January 10, 2012.  

 

For more information visit:  www.climateculturepolitics.org 

 
RegisterNow
Upcoming Event

 

Under Western Skies 2: October 10 - 13, 2012
 
A call for papers for Mount Royal University's award-winning biennial conference series on the environment ends January 23rd, 2012.

For more information including confirmed keynote speakers and registration visit http://skies.mtroyal.ca/


More info  

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happy holidays
Hello ABCD friends,
 
With our second annual workshop under our belts we have a lot to be proud of and a lot of work ahead! We are very grateful to have such talented and dedicated researchers and partners working on this project. Thanks to everyone for your on-going support and involvement.
 
Please enjoy this issue with reports on our 2011 Annual Workshop, video presentations from the City of Edmonton workshop, and this issue's featured ABCD Action Team. We have also included an introduction to one of our valued students; a new addition to our newsletter!
 
From all of us at ABCD we wish you a happy holiday season!  
ABCD's 2011 Annual Workshop
 

Over 40 ABCD members attended this year's Annual Workshop, which ran from September 23rd to the 25th at both the Art Gallery of Alberta and the University's Alumni House. Highlights of the workshop included collaborating with the City of Edmonton to partner in a 2012 deliberation exercise, re-energizing and recruiting members to join Action Teams and brainstorming new themes and deliberation opportunities for the project's upcoming years.

 

Our student research assistants played a leadership role in this year's workshop by overseeing sessions, participating in discussions and taking notes throughout. We were fortunate to have perfect weather to conduct various outdoor sessions and to take the occasional (and well deserved) break. We continued with our mandate to host sustainable meetings by having members attend sessions remotely, reducing paper handouts, and choosing sustainable, local and organic food options for our meals and snacks. A special addition to this year's workshop was having the discussions captured in several hand-drawn murals by professional graphic facilitator, Avril Orloff.

 

Debriefing activities have shown us that project momentum is still strong. The next steps will include connecting with members who were not able to attend, pursuing emerging themes that may become new working groups, and solidifying our partnership with the City of Edmonton. Download our summary report , previously circulated to all ABCD members, for more details on workshop activities.

 
Wksp_2011_01
Jacquie Dale and Miriam Wyman enjoying an outdoor session
Online videos from ABCD-hosted event
Iveson
Councillor Don Iveson talks about citizen deliberation
  

On Friday Sept. 23rd - just prior to our annual workshop - ABCD, the Centre for Public Involvement and the City of Edmonton, Office of the Environment hosted a workshop-style meeting to go over the benefits of deliberative democracy in relation to implementing the City's strategic environmental plan The Way We Green. ABCD captured the day's presentations, which can now be viewed.     

The presentations include:

 

1) Opening remarks - David Kahane, ABCD Director

 

2) Introduction - Jim Andrais, Office of the Environment

 

3) Citizen deliberation for climate and energy - Councillor Don Iveson

 

4) Deliberative democracy strategies - Matt Leighninger, DDC

 

5) Nudge, Think, Shove - Edward Andersson, Involve UK

 

6) City of Gearldton case study - Janette Hartz-Karp, Curtin University

 

7) Design choices for deliberation - Jacquie Dale, One World Inc.


8) Citizen panel case study - Fiona Cavanagh, CPI

 

9) Panel Reflections

Featured ABCD Research Assistant - Greg Powell

GregPowell

Who was that shoeless guy at the ABCD workshop???

 

Greg Powell began working with ABCD in 2010 while employed at the Pembina Institute as the project coordinator for Alberta Acts on Climate Change. Last summer he traveled to Australia but he couldn't get away from us! ABCD hired Greg to continue working on projects including a detailed report titled, Alberta Greenhouse Gas Toolkit: A Review of Existing Guides and Support Tools that will help maximize the effectiveness of the Calgary led project The Greenhouse Gas Action Toolkit for Alberta Communities (or "Alberta GHG Toolkit" for short).

 

Greg is currently studying Theology at the University of Toronto and is a research assistant for ABCD's Historical Context Action Team led by Lorelei Hanson, Athabasca University. In his spare time Greg enjoys triathlons and running (with or without his shoes).


Featured Action Team: Social Change and Policy Outcomes (SCPO)

change signThe SCPO team, led by Professor Laurie Adkin,

has begun an extensive literature review on ecological citizenship and a review of past deliberation processes, including their outcomes and analyses.

They will track data from ABCD-hosted deliberations, and hope to resource public opinion polling before and after the deliberations to determine if there are shifts in beliefs regarding climate change and necessary policy actions. Participant surveys, tracking media coverage of the deliberations, documentation of responses from policy makers, government, corporate, environmental community groups and other organizations will also be used to determine the influence of our deliberations.

 

Researchers on this team are interested in how the design variables of our deliberations (i.e. how questions about climate change are approached or how the perspectives of various groups are brought into the conversation) will ultimately affect the participant's views and influence climate change action and policy development.

 

During our 2011 annual workshop it became clear that all other ABCD research will be linked to this team's work in the months ahead. 

cake
Bon Voyage to Stacy Wall
We would like to wish farewell (for now) to Stacy Wall, an ABCD member from the City of Edmonton who will be returning to the United Kingdom to work with the University of Bournemouth and the Health Department of the Local Authority on a project called "Synergies between health and tourism strategies: an organizational ethnography." Best of luck to Stacy in all her future endeavours!

 

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Please share your ideas, opportunities and photos with ABCD for an upcoming e-newsletter at [email protected].

 

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

David Kahane, Nina Gales and Sue Cole,
ABCD Executive Committee