Deliberative democracy experts and practitioners from across the globe recently descended on Copenhagen for the 6th annual Democracy R&D Conference. This year’s theme was ‘Let’s Give Democracy An Overhaul.’

Organised by the Democracy R&D network in collaboration with the The Danish Board of Technology and We Do Democracy, the event saw attendees, gather together to take a deep dive into contemporary deliberative democracy practice.

“It was like a supernova of deliberative democracy!”

— Nicole Hunter, MosaicLab Co-founder and Director.

Our co-founders and directors Nicole Hunter and Keith Greaves were there representing Australia and swapping learnings, stories and ideas with the other international delegates.

Here’s the lowdown on who they connected with and their takeaways from the event, including thinking around topics such as:

whether some issues are too hard for deliberation
how to advance deliberative practice in the ‘global south’, particularly previously colonised countries
what ‘democracy fitness’ looks like.
how to ‘supercharge’ method design.

PLUS photos from and insights into the facilitating deliberation masterclass Nic and Keith ran for a packed room of international delegates.

the demokrati garage

The Demokrati Garage, Copenhagen’s new meeting place for participation, was the main location for conference activities.

Formerly a car repair shop, this ‘garage’ now focuses on giving democracy a well needed ‘tune up’, and proved the perfect arena for attendees to meet, network and share knowledge.

Delegates were also able to grab a cup of coffee in the in-house cafe.

The Demokrati Garage — Sign says (in Danish), “welcome to democracy garage - the city's meeting place for democracy innovation and everyday participation”.

Nicole and Keith with Zakia Elvang from We Do Democracy

MosaicLab socks for Alex Renirie from Healthy Democracy

Keith hanging out with Democracy R&D legend and coordinator David Schecter

Nicole finally meeting Felipe Ray from iDeemos in person after years online

“Everyone that was there had a huge amount to offer and had amazing things going on in the field.”

— Keith Greaves, MosaicLab Co-founder and Director

WORKSHOPS & reflections

Over the course of the event, Nicole and Keith participated in and led sessions and had a chance to network, learn from and collaborate with their peers. Below are their top insights.

Are some issues too hard for deliberation?

Nicole co-facilitated a workshop with Kyle Redman from newDemocracy which invited conversation around the question ‘Are some issues too hard for deliberation?’

Participants agreed there weren’t many contexts or issues where it would be too hard. One of the bigger discussions was around whether places where there is ongoing violent conflict were too hard for deliberative democracy to take place. There were differing opinions on this in the room with some suggesting it must and others saying the safety issues were too great.

“Is a place where there is ongoing violent conflict, one where deliberative democracy can occur? This conversation really stood out for me, the room was undecided. With all that is going on in the world this would be worth exploring further.”

— Nicole Hunter

deliberation in the Global South

Delegates explored the importance of a two-way learning process for deliberation work in the ‘Global South’ (Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.)

Attendees discussed the importance of acknowledging the colonised past of these countries and ensuring effective, appropriate ways forward for deliberation were identified.

supercharging method design

A key takeaway from the conference was learning about evolving deliberative democracy processes and innovation in method design.

The discussion included conversations around how practitioners can involve citizens to help design and monitor deliberative democracy processes and embed them within institutional practice.

Learn more about this workshop and connect with the practitioners involved on Linkedin here.

“We were super impressed by the cutting edge thinking around method design. There are some amazing practitioners championing different models at the moment” ”

— Keith Greaves

Building democracy fitness

Working on your democracy fitness is a great way to ensure you’re fit for democracy!

Kathrine Krone from Democracy Fitness explained that taking the time to train your ‘democracy muscles’ through practices such as deep listening, compromising and empathy will ensure you’re aware and ready to take part.

HOW can we BETTER ENGAGE?

This session focused on sharing ideas about how to communicate more effectively about the work of deliberative democracy.

Using successful PR campaigns as inspiration, we can rethink how we engage organisations and participants and get them more energised and interested in the process of deliberarive democracy.

“Building our democracy fitness can be practiced like exercise, so let’s get some fitness training happening in Australia!”

— Nicole Hunter

faciltating deliberation MASTERCLASS

Keith presenting a the Facilitating Deliberation Masterclass

Nicole and Keith presented the half day masterclass ‘Facilitating Deliberation – A Practical Guide’ which unpacked the facilitation methods and processes from The Big Book.

Participants filled the Demokrati Garage, all eager to learn about our approaches to the practical delivery of deliberative engagement processes.

With over 47 people and 14 countries represented in the room it was a mixing pot of ideas and experiences. Tapping into this expertise and lived experience, whilst sharing some of our own tools was a real honour.

“With such diversity of experiences and so many different contexts within which deliberation is happening - it makes you reflect on the potential reach of deliberative practice around the world and across very different contexts, and the fact that there were people we were working with that were going back to very uncertain, difficult environments,” said Keith.

Keith and Nicole overviewed the 7 Steps of facilitating deliberative democracy processes that they use to move through with a group. The participants shared what they wanted to achieve out of the day, unpacked the 7 steps, saw a 6.5 day deliberation processes 3-minute movie showing what it really looks like in action, and then stories and some key methods were role played at the end. It was a real action packed half-day!

“Running the Masterclass was a privilege. We were sharing skills and ideas with a number of people who have to fight for the right to even have a conversation.”

— Keith Greaves

“ “The diversity of experiences in the room, meant we could explore how our approaches work in other contexts. It was such an honour to hear the different reflections and insights””

— Nicole Hunter

Facilitating Masterclass participants — Masterclass underway - a packed room for MosaicLab’s Facilitating Deliberation workshop.

Masterclass participants Sara and Chim from MassLBP (convenors on the next conference!).

Facilitating Masterclass participants getting hands on experience — Participants get hands on during the masterclass

looking forward

The 2023 event is now over, and it’s time for our ongoing efforts to advance deliberative democracy practice around the world to continue!

Continuous Learning

The MosaicLab team and the team from We Do Democracy based in Copenhagen have plans to come together post-event to share ideas and support each other to learn and grow.