Ep 28 - Deliberative democracy for the future of Auckland's water, with Dr Tatjana Buklijas and Dr Jenny Wigley

Podcast Episode images (3).jpg
 

Introducing Dr Tatjana Buklijas and Dr Jenny Wigley

Deliberative democracy is a topic that has come up more than once on the Beyond Consultation podcast.

To look at how deliberative democracy might be applied here in New Zealand, we have not one, but two people here to share their experience working on the Complex Conversations Project that is funded by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment.

Dr. Tatjana Buklijas works at the university of Auckland, and Dr. Jenny Wigley works at Watercare. They recently teamed up to research the impact of deliberative democracy through a real-life project with Watercare looking at the future of Auckland’s water supply.

But what is deliberative democracy? Tatjana explains the three aspects:

  1. It involves bringing a diverse group of citizens together (and the diversity of the group is hugely important)

  2. You then provide information to that group so they can understand the complexity of a particular issue or situation

  3. The group then discusses the issue to see what consensus might (or might not) emerge.

Deliberative democracy has a rich overseas tradition. It’s allowed countries to make progress on some sticky issues.

How might we build on this in Aotearoa New Zealand while also recognising our own rich history of kōrero in te ao Māori?

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

  • The difference between representative democracy, participatory democracy and deliberative democracy, and why it matters.

  • What we can learn from both deliberative democracy and Tikanga Māori.

  • Steps you might take to apply deliberative democracy in your work.

  • How the Complex Conversations Project is working to build a movement of deliberative democracy in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Resources mentioned in this episode


Sign up for the Movement Makers newsletter

Sign up to our fortnightly newsletter and get the insights, tools and powerful whakaaro from people transforming the collaboration space.


Send us a question or recommend a guest

Do you have a question about how to move beyond consultation? You can leave us a voice message here for us to share and discuss with a future guest. You can also send us a guest recommendation to us at info@businesslab.co.nz.


Subscribe to the show

The Beyond Consultation Podcast will help you to do more than just tick the box of consultation. It’s the podcast for purpose-driven professionals who want to increase their collective impact.

You'll hear stories of people working together on challenges that no single person or organisation can address on its own. You'll hear about the mindsets, the methods, the failures, and the lessons learned - all with the goal of increasing the collective impact you're making in your work.

Subscribe below on your favourite platform or to receive email notifications when a new episode is uploads to the cloud: