Citizens' Assemblies Archives | Rethinking Poverty

Citizens' Assemblies

The Democracy of Consumers is dying. Now we must build a Democracy of Citizens

By Jon Alexander

21 Apr 2022

This piece on a ‘Democracy of Citizens’ is #8 in the ‘Visions for the Future of Democracy’ series curated by Involve for its 15th anniversary. We have asked authors to...

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Beyond the framework: the co-benefits of deliberation

By Jez Hall

31 Mar 2022

A new paper examining Shared Future’s Leeds Climate Change Citizens Jury highlights the co-benefits of deliberation, writes SF Director Jez Hall. Local authorities wanting to achieve meaningful carbon reduction, are increasingly turning...

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Democratic wellbeing: a new report from Carnegie UK

By Rethinking Poverty

21 Feb 2022

Carnegie UK published their report GDWe: A spotlight on democratic wellbeing last month. Gross Domestic Wellbeing (GDWe) is an alternative measure of social progress to the dominant measure GDP, as set...

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Lessons from a citizens’ jury on climate change

By Maria Lucien

19 Jan 2022

With COP 26 starting in Glasgow on 31st October 2021, we have brought together the recommendations from six citizens’ juries and assemblies run by Shared Future over the last...

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Kendal underlines the importance of community-led climate change action

By Peter Bryant

23 Dec 2021

The Kendal Climate Change Citizens’ Jury, commissioned by Kendal Town Council gave us at Shared Future, as the facilitating team, an opportunity to reflect on the importance of instituting... Read More

Citizens Assemblies: fashionable focus groups or the great hopes of democracy?

By Katy Oglethorpe

03 Aug 2021

Newham citizens assembly Newham, the East London borough: home to the 2012 Olympics, birthplace of Danny Dyer and the most ethnically diverse place in England and Wales. Soon Newham... Read More

Kendal Citizens Jury on Climate Change

By Shared Future

18 Mar 2021

What should Kendal do about climate change? That was the challenge tackled by a diverse group of local residents of Kendal during the summer and autumn of 2020. Commissioned... Read More

Local innovations to solve the problems that matter

By Pippa Coutts

09 Mar 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic, with its many challenges has tested our ability to innovate. Many of us associate the idea of innovation with bright, new objects or processes, and this... Read More

Accelerating the people-powered shift

By Carrie Deacon and Will Bibby

23 Dec 2020

Across the country in communities, in health services and in local authorities, a change has been happening. From East Ayrshire and Cambidgeshire to Leeds and Plymouth, leading public service innovators have been redefining the relationship between... Read More

Citizens assemblies to #BuildBackBetter

By Caroline Hartnell

11 Nov 2020

When we think about building back better, we are thinking about power and how we make decisions, said Compass’s Frances Foley, introducing a webinar on citizens assemblies called Deliberating and doing:... Read More

Use Covid recovery to get to net zero: the Citizens Assembly’s verdict

By Chaitanya Kumar

22 Oct 2020

In the first of its kind in the UK, a National Citizens Assembly has deliberated and this week produced a detailed set of recommendations to get the UK on... Read More