Facilitators as guardians of inclusion? A mixed-method study of a Deliberative Poll in Finland

In deliberative participatory processes, citizens work together in conversations that are inclusive, informed and productive. The crucial role of facilitators in enabling these conversations is widely acknowledged in the scholarly literature (Escobar 2019; Beauvais & Bächtiger 2016; Moore 2012). In general, facilitators are expected to be impartial (Dillard 2013), but it has been pointed out that the roles of facilitators and their practices vary based on the scope and goal of the mini-public (von Schneidemesser et al. 2023; Landwehr 2014). Our study builds on Landwehr (2014) who sets internal inclusion and pluralism of diverse opinions as the most important normative standard for facilitators. We ask, how facilitators see and fulfil their role as guardians of inclusion? More specifically, we study facilitators’ views on their different tasks during a deliberative participatory process, and evaluations of discourse quality. The data come from a survey to 20 small group facilitators in a large-scale Deliberative Poll organized in Finland together with the Parliament in November 2023. Facilitators were demographically diverse and represented both professional facilitators and non-professionals, enabling us to identify linkages between facilitator background and attitudes. Facilitators’ survey data are also compared to participants’ evaluations of discourse quality in small groups, and discussed in relation to qualitative field notes written by facilitators during the event. Our article opens up the black box of facilitation in deliberative mini-publics and provides insights on preconditions for inclusive citizen deliberation.