Panel 1: Democratic sustainability transformations in energy and food: deliberative governance revisited

Abstract

Current sustainability challenges demand to democratically transform the social and political discourses, institutions and practices. In this panel, we revisit what deliberative democracy theories and their offspring (e.g. deliberative governance), have to offer to these transformation processes. Democratic institutions have important roles to play in these transitions, but what does the study of democratic practices, and deliberations have to offer? In an age of increasing populism, polarization and digitalization with rapid spread of (mis)information; is there still merit in creating soft spaces for deliberation? How relevant are the procedural improvements of interactions between governmental actors and non-governmental actors, including industries, NGO’s, and the general public? This panel invites papers that critically reflect on these pressing questions of the relevance of dialogue and deliberation in soft spaces and throughout our democratic system and in our democratic fabric - since,, what is democratic, is not only based on normative theories, but also includes what people in policy practices consider to be democratic.

Title	Details
Energy justice through mapping: exploring distributive aspects in citizen mapping assignments	View Paper Details
The un-realised potential of deliberative mini-publics for sustainability transformations	View Paper Details
Evaluating the Austrian Climate Assembly: Input, Process and Output	View Paper Details
When is participation in climate futures transformative? New evaluation criteria from the perspective of radical democratic theory	View Paper Details