[cma-l] New DEMOS report - Democratising Engagement

[Shawn Sobers]

Note:

No mention of community media directly from what I can see, which is
ironic considering the whole report is about everything community media
delivers and stands for.

Again a case of us needing to shout louder to say we exist.

Regards,

Shawn Sobers

Democratising Engagement: What the UK can learn from international
experience

Published today - 29th April.

Citizen engagement has become an essential part of modern government.
Gone are the days when the best that citizens could expect was to be
told what was good for them.

Governments around the world are starting to realise that engaging their
citizens more in shaping the decisions that affect their everyday lives
improves both legitimacy and the quality of public services. In the UK,
addressing the democratic deficit is high on the political agenda. But
the current model of consultation does not bring in the diversity of
voices and perspectives that would make citizen engagement genuinely
democratic.

This pamphlet draws on the Institute for Development Studies research
project Spaces for Change, examining international attempts to
democratise citizen engagement. The case studies show that genuine,
inclusive engagement requires investment to create an enabling
environment and to support society's least vocal and least powerful
people to find and use their voices. As other countries lead the effort
to involve the public in meaningful conversations about policy, the
pamphlet argues that the UK has much to learn from their experience.

Download from:

http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/democratisingengagement

Shawn Sobers
Faculty of Creative Arts
University of the West of England
Bower Ashton Campus
Bristol
BS3 2JT

Roles:
Senior Lecturer in Photography & Media
Faculty Outreach Co-ordinator / Widening Participation

shawn.sobers at uwe.ac.uk
http://www.uwe.ac.uk