Specialist Group Showcase

Meet the team

At this year’s AGM, three new co-convenors were elected, Sonia Bussu, Anastasia Deligiaouri and Dannica Fleuß, and joined Hans Asenbaum in the co-convenor team. All four convenors specialise in participatory and deliberative democracy, but each of us brings specific interests and skills to the team. Sonia is Lecturer in Politics and Public Administration at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research focuses on participatory governance and coproduction of public services. Anastasia is Marie Curie Experienced Research Fellow at Dublin City University and works in a project on deliberative approaches to e-rule making. Dannica is a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg and specialises in theories of political legitimacy and measurements of deliberation. Hans is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. His work focuses on identity and inclusion through radical democratic politics.

What are the aims of your Specialist Group?

PDD functions as a research network for scholars interested in participatory and deliberative democracy. Our vision is to revitalise and transform how politics is done by giving people a greater voice. Our membership is broad and diverse in various respects. It includes researchers who seek to reform democratic institutions and those pursuing deep reconfigurations of politics and society. Our membership also includes scholars in different stages of their careers from all over the world. The key task of PDD is bringing all these diverse people together and putting them into conversation. We strive for realizing our democratic aspirations also within our community by regarding everyone as equal. Key to our mission is also to include practitioners, activists, and public servants into the conversation, which enables us to increase our impact.

What activities do you undertake as a group?

Our main activities include the biannual PDD conference, the yearly PDD section at the PSA conference and several one-off events such as workshops, public talks, and book launches. Our last PDD conference in 2018 at the University of Westminster attracted over 150 participants from 15 countries across the globe, including countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, the USA, Australia, and South Africa. The three-day conference marked an important milestone in the development of the PDD group extending its reach beyond the UK and establishing it internationally as leading research group on participatory and deliberative democracy. Beyond all these events, we maintain close contact with our members via social media and our email list. We are a particularly vibrant community online, sharing calls for papers, job alerts, new publications and the like. Due to the current health situation, we organised a webinar series including five sessions where members will present and discuss their current work.

How can new members get involved or find out more?

We are always happy to welcome new members into our community. The best way to get in contact is simply by registering via the PSA website. If there are any difficulties, just send us an email at PSAdemocracy@gmail.com and we will gladly add you as member. For current information, visit the PDD website. Also, follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.