Citizen Juries

Citizen juries, more commonly known as citizen assemblies have been proven to result in more long-term sustainable thinking, and this is what we need with the climate emergency. After reading The Assassin, you should understand the concept of citizen juries well, although in reality, these won’t include attempted murders! Citizen Juries also crop up as a solution in Climate Gamers.

Citizen Juries/Citizen Assemblies

Change Agents UK has outlined how these citizen assemblies/juries can work in practice to lead to better decision-making on their website.

Citizen assemblies are being currently used in the UK to address the climate crisis, which Extinction Rebellion have been advocates of for a long time. You can watch this documentary to find out how ordinary people can help to address this issue.

Participedia provides a very extensive explanation of how a citizen jury works, its purpose, origins, how to recruit participants, how it works and lessons learned from our experience so far. You can read it here.

You can also listen to this BBC Radio 4 programme where Sangita Myska hears from David Van Reybrouck, co-founder of one of the first permanent citizens’ assemblies in the world.

Interested in progressing this solution further?

Actions for policymakers  Introduce citizen assemblies and give them power to set the agenda and decide policy.
Actions for funding bodies
Actions for business
Actions for public  The Sortition Foundation wants to replace the House of Lords with a permanent citizens’ assembly: the House of Citizens. To support their campaign you can:
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Show your support for citizen assemblies by sharing your views with your MP, and promoting the idea across your networks.
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