The Deliberative Experience: Exploring the Experiences of Participants within the Citizens' Panel on Edmonton's Energy and Climate Challenges

• Author / Creator

  Hobbs, Lyndsay A

• Climate change is a complex and value-laden issue, polarized by debate, and the localized nature of its effects warrants greater community response and citizen participation. This research contributes to existing deliberative democracy theory and practice by exploring the nature of participant experiences at the Citizens’ Panel on Edmonton’s Energy and Climate Challenges. Following the journeys of select deliberators, through journal entries, observations, and survey responses, I seek to provide greater understanding of resulting knowledge, belief, and opinion changes, and shifts in civic engagement as well as the elements of the deliberative event that facilitated or hindered participant change and the production of meaningful, “public-spirited” dialogue. Key findings show that participants experienced knowledge increases and opinion formation, but that factors such as a lack of formal decision-making power, activism, and City of Edmonton bias towards low carbon caused participant frustration and skepticism of the process.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Public participation
  • Climate change
  • Energy
  • Deliberative democracy

• Graduation date

  Fall 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R36M33C1Q

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.