Experts and evidence in democratic innovations

Ruth Lightbody, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Glasgow Caledonian University

Wednesday 12th March, 1-2pm, Cottrell 2V1 and streamed on Teams (contact the seminar organiser for the Teams link).

This seminar is open to all staff, students and affiliates of the University of Stirling. The seminar is hosted by Biological and Environmental Sciences (BES).

Who this might appeal to: This presentation should be of interest to anyone who does research which informs policy making or has an interest in informing policy through innovative ways. It will also be of interest to those working to engage different groups of people in learning, understanding and discussing complex issues including ‘lay’ citizens, politicians and practitioners.

Abstract: Democratic innovations including deliberative mini-publics have been gaining prominence as a means of informing policy and decision-making in recent years. Such processes typically involve experts to help participants understand issues and potential solutions. While there is emphasis on diversity and inclusivity across mini-public participants to ensure that they represent wider society, much less attention is given to the experts involved. Yet, having a diversity of identities and experiences represented among experts is important for the legitimacy of deliberative processes and their outcomes. Recently, both in the UK and internationally, the use of citizen deliberations has grown rapidly, particularly to inform on climate policy and action. The disproportionate impacts of climate change on particular groups, including lower income groups, people of colour and younger generations, puts inclusion in decision making in the spotlight. There is a recognized need to urgently diversify who participates in climate change decision making (Dietzel & Venn, 2021). This talk will discuss definitions of experts and evidence, and consider how revisiting what we think of as ‘good’ evidence and knowledgeable experts might be part of the solution for challenging misinformation and elite rule. The talk will discuss key questions such as: What makes good evidence and how important is its delivery? What is the role of experts in policy making and who decides where their role begins and ends? By widening our definition of who constitutes as an expert, can we foster more innovative and creative policy solutions to social and political issues?

Bio: Ruth Lightbody is a senior lecturer in politics at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her research focuses on deliberative democracy and democratic innovations, particularly exploring how they can be used to implement policy changes which tackle social inequalities and environmental issues. Ruth was awarded an Academic Fellowship at the Scottish Parliament in 2023 to develop an evaluation framework for measuring deliberative principles and practice within the Parliament. She has delivered projects for the British Academy/Leverhulme, the Scottish Government, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, ClimateXChange and Marine Scotland. Her recent publications have focused on the role of experts and evidence giving in deliberative processes, and how traditional participatory methods, such as public hearings, may have been overlooked by deliberative democrats. Ruth is a research lead in the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Unit (SPIRU), based in Glasgow Caledonian University.