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The latest contributions by Nivek Thompson, Deliberately Engaging’s CEO, to thought leadership in the field of democratic innovation has been published in the Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance (edited by Elstub, S. & Escobar, O.) Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK (2019). This new academic benchmark contains tow contributions by Nivek, the first on “The role of elected representatives in democratic innovations” and the second on “Democratic Innovations in Australia” co-authored with Lucy Parry and Jane Alver.

Developing young community leaders – February 2020

Deliberately Engaging is producing an exciting new podcast series for tomorrow’s community and workplace leaders. Moderated by Emeritus Professor Ed Davis the series will discuss how to empower people and give them a greater voice.

Facilitating public deliberation – January 2019

Deliberately Engaging is producing a new podcast series on the art of facilitating public deliberations that is moderated by Professor Lyn Carson and developed in partnership with the newDemocracy Foundation We will be talking with practitioners, advocates and academics about the history of pubic deliberations and the various approaches to facilitating them.

Deliberately Engaging teams up with Queensland University – November 2019

Deliberately Engaging is partnering with the University of Queensland in researching the impact of deliberation on how people consider different policy proposals for integrating environmental, economic and social considerations. This project also explores the respective impact of online with face-to-face deliberation. The results will be published in academic journals in due course.

A leader of people – September 2019

Deliberately Engaging’s Daren McDonald has a passionate commitment to social justice and a deep interest in the history of social movements that have helped create peace, justice and better societies. Man on a Mission (Sifiso Publishing, Johannesburg 2019) is the latest in a series of four books he has edited that gives voice to stories about changing the world. Man on a Mission is the autobiography of South African Ambassador Sonwabo “Eddie” Funde who stood with Nelson Mandela in winning freedom for his people and, in so doing, inspired people everywhere that – together – we can make change happen.

Real Democracy Now: A Podcast – July 2019

In episode eight of season three, Nivek Thompson of Deliberately Engaging speaks  with Therese Arseneau about the introduction of a mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system to New Zealand. Therese was an expert advisor to the New Zealand Electoral Commission between 2010 and 2016 and is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the University of Canterbury, Christchurch.

World first democratic innovation – May 2019

Deliberately Engaging recently donated its services to assist the Kyneton and District Town Hall Co-operative select a portion of their board members through the use of sortition, in what appears to be a world first democratic innovation. Sortition or selection by lot (like a lottery), has a long history. It was used in ancient Greece (specifically in Athens), the birthplace of democracy, to select people for political office. Sortition has been used in many places since Ancient Athens. The most well-known is the use of sortition to select people for jury service.  Recently in Australia sortition, or random selection as it is more commonly called, is used as part of deliberative “mini-publics”, often called citizens’ juries.