Page 3075 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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The fellowship provides academics, scholars, PhD students and postdoctoral candidates with an opportunity to undertake research based in the ACT Legislative Assembly library. This program is open to all scholars and in particular those whose research interests are centred on ACT politics, ACT history, ACT parliamentary affairs, parliamentary procedure, ACT economics and other subjects related to the Assembly or the ACT more broadly.
Fellows have access to the internal library collections and are supported by library staff for the duration of their fellowship. The purpose of the fellowship is to contribute to scholarship on the Assembly and its work; promote knowledge and understanding of the Assembly; provide a researcher with work experience in a parliamentary environment; contribute to the knowledge of the ACT, for use by ACT MLAs and other Assembly personnel; and build a historical database of papers relating to the ACT which can be used for future purposes.
This year’s fellow was Ms Nicole Moore, a PhD candidate at the University of Canberra. Ms Moore’s fellowship paper, “Engaging citizens through co-design and deliberative engagements”, aims to build public sector capability in engaging citizens in decision-making processes.
The fellowship paper acknowledges that the ACT government has made significant progress in recent years in developing a more coordinated whole-of-government approach to engaging Canberrans. However, as is the case around the world, our changing social contexts mean that we must always strive to be better and do better for the people that we serve.
This paper provides historical reviews of co-design and deliberative engagements, and two distinct methods of citizen engagement that have been used in the ACT, as well as around the world. The paper provides comparisons and commonalities, along with recommended considerations that public servants should make when deciding between each approach.
In the case of co-design, the paper suggests that the most useful application would be in cases where lived experiences should guide decision making, where challenges are complex and innovative solutions are needed. In the case of deliberative engagements, the paper suggests that the most useful application would be cases where evidence needs to be unpacked to determine shared preferences and priorities between citizens, using critical reasoning.
The paper also suggests that combining approaches can enable citizens to engage in different ways over time. For example, citizens may be involved in deliberating on high order preferences before moving into more targeted co-design processes to identify specific solutions. In particular, the paper argues that both co-design and deliberative engagements provide useful methods for collaborating with citizens to shape public policy and service system decisions. Given the importance of engaging citizens in public policy, this fellowship paper provides a useful guidance for the public service, as well as for members of the ACT Assembly.
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