Edmonton Deliberations In Progress!
ABCD, in partnership with the City of Edmonton and the Centre for Public Involvement, has commenced with the Citizens' Panel on Edmonton's Energy and Climate Challenges. Beginning in mid October, over 60 citizens of Edmonton were recruited to learn about climate change and energy vulnerability from balanced materials and presentations by experts.
The Panel has worked together over five day-long sessions. The last, Session 6, will be held this Saturday, Dec. 1st. They will all have a say in the content of the Citizen's Panel Final Report that will outline their recommendations for the City's consideration.
Panellists have heard presentations from City representatives, industry, and university experts, and have taken part in facilitated exercises to help them find common ground. With the use of iClickers panellists are able to respond to questions and show their preferences anonymously throughout the proceedings.
ABCD researchers have been on site to collect information from the Panelists using interview, survey, journalling, and observational research and learning methods.
We are very excited that this initiative is now underway. The sessions to date have been energetic and thought provoking. After two years of talks and planning we can now see our innovative deliberative democracy theories in practice.
Reports for Sessions 1 through 5 can be found on the ABCD website.
| Panellists working in groups to select and prioritize values |
|
Civil Society Plans for 2013
Jill Clements |
Aside from the continued learning in connection with the Citizens' Panel on Edmonton's Energy and Climate Challenges, ABCD is planning for possible future deliberations involving Civil Society.
Jill Clements was added to the ABCD team to oversee a Civil Society initiative. She is in the process of developing a concept paper for consideration by our Steering Committee.
Prior to ABCD Jill was the Executive Director of the Greater Victoria Coalition to end Homelessness and spent 12 years in South Asia and Europe working with the British Red Cross and with other international development and humanitarian initiatives.
|
2012 NCDD Conference, Seattle
In October, Susanna Haas Lyons and Gwendolyn Blue presented ABCD research at the National Coalition for Deliberation and Dialogue biennial conference. The talk helped raise awareness of the current ABCD activities and pointed out some of the challenges of incorporating deliberative dialogue on an issue as complex as climate change. The audience included people with a great deal of experience in convening public discussions on climate change, which led to a robust group discussion. For details on the presentation please see the more detailed report posted on the ABCD website.The Citizens' Panel, currently taking place in Edmonton was of great interest, encouraging many people to sign up for our newsletter to see how things will unfold. For a more details on Susanna and Gwen's presentation at NCDD Seattle, please visit the ABCD website.
| Gwen Blue, ABCD Researcher |
|