UCC Academic for Belgian Summit
08.11.2011
Over a year ago the Belgian people voted for a government to represent them. Today they are still waiting for this government to be formed. In response to this crisis, a group of Belgian ‘independent thinkers and doers’ has organised the G1000 project, the county’s first citizens’ deliberative summit. This Friday, November 11th, the G1000 will bring together 1000 randomly selected citizens to discuss the challenges Belgium currently faces and to develop proposals around four themes.

UCC will be contributing to this innovative and ambitious event with the presence of Dr Clodagh Harris, Department of Government. Dr Harris has been invited to attend as an international observer. With fellow members of the international observer team, who include Professor David Farrell (UCD), Professor Jean Tillie (University of Amsterdam), Ms Ida Andersen (Danish Board of Technology) and delegates from the European Commission’s Citizens Policy Unit, Dr Harris will prepare an interim report that captures the team’s commentaries and reflections on the event as well as their impressions on how the event fits into a larger international trend towards more deliberative forms of democracy. A member of the Citizens international advisory board, Dr Harris has considerable experience of deliberative processes and citizen consultations. She organised the Democracy Commission’s citizen consultation events, employing innovative techniques such as Forum Theatre and Community Art and has also acted as facilitator for the Irish legs of the European Citizens’ Consultations for the National Forum on Europe and the European Movement.

Picture: Dr Clodagh Harris

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