Policy Briefs
Click to read UoS Students and Academics reflecting on their experience of engaging with PPS and policymakers.
Project Members
Project Lead:
Dr Matt Ryan, Associate Professor in Governance and Public Policy at the University of Southampton
Project Members:
Dr Zohreh Khoban, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southampton
Dr Katy Tabero, Research Fellow at the University of Southampton
Charlotte Campbell-Nieves, PhD Student in Economic Geography / Senior Policy Associate in Public Policy at the University of Southampton
Dr Jack Pink, Research Fellow at University of Southampton
Marco Meloni, Research Fellow at the University of Southampton
Supporters:
Southampton City Council
Invovle
Sortiton Foundation
Overview
Citizen’s Assemblies have been used as effective contributions to the democratic process. Perhaps the most famous example is Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly which contributed to many seismic decisions including legalising abortion. But such assemblies originated in British Columbia, and have been used across the world to make important decisions from Canberra to Cambridge, and have set climate agendas from Paris to Poznan. The format is maturing and has been applied to questions around Climate Change and Climate Policy in the UK since 2020. Citizens assemblies try to give everyone an equal chance of invitation to take part and allow citizens a safe space to learn about and contribute to policymaking. Now, a new variant is being developed in the City of Southampton encouraging many kinds of conversation from people from all walks of life embedding the assembly and its message within the fabric of the city itself. Assembly members will be supported to produce outputs to be shared across the city. All this will be done in preparation for citizens to contribute to the City Council’s Climate and Green policies. Southampton’s Climate Assembly is a contribution to local discussions outside the regular political timeline. The project itself is not led by any political parties. Instead, it emerges from a partnership within the City between the University of Southampton led by the Rebooting Democracy Research Group, and the City Council’s Leadership and civil servants. Assembly members will be drawn from across Southampton ensuring diversity of opinion and experience.
Anticipated policy impacts
The assembly is specifically designed to allow ordinary people to affect policy, giving them the space to learn about and contribute to solving collective problems. The designers are working with policy officers to ensure the outputs of the Assembly will affect key policy decisions and that there is a transparent process for monitoring progress on implementation. Also by sharing knowledge from research and knowledge of practices and needs in the city we anticipate we can improve the practice of democratic decision making in between and across the timelines of formal elections and consultations in the city.
Find out more
Policy Podcasts
Click here to listen to our Policy Podcast series. In each episode we speak to the UoS researchers and experts, about their experiences in the domestic and foreign policies.
Ways to engage
Guidance on the many channels available to researchers to engage with policymakers.
Impact toolkit
Guidance on things to consider in the science to policy process and useful tips in planning and costing your impact activities.