Kate Long

Myself and @gracecooper1.bsky.social presented our paper on climate mini-public professionals in the UK, which uses a qualitative social network analysis to understand the dynamics behind deliberative standards and practices. Massive thanks to everyone who spoke to us and engaged with this research!

01.09.2025 14:46 — 👍 0    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Back from a fun week in Greece for @ecpr.bsky.social 's General Conference! It was great to hear such interesting research on democratic innovations, particularly surrounding intersectionality, institutionalisation and new understandings of the political economy of the field.

01.09.2025 14:43 — 👍 5    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0

(🧵6) Together, these justifications reveal tensions organisers navigate:
⚖️ neutrality vs partisanship
⚡ urgency vs incrementalism
🌱 optimism vs realism

24.08.2025 12:10 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

(🧵5) Finally, by involving a representative group of citizens, organisers hope to build legitimacy, consensus, and support for difficult climate policies.

24.08.2025 12:10 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

(🧵4) Second, mini-publics are presented as ways to repair local democracy, pioneer new methods of citizen engagement, and rebuild trust.

24.08.2025 12:10 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

(🧵3) By analysing 267 documents (reports, council minutes, press releases, etc.), I identified three key justifications. First, that organisers stress the need to act now, framing mini-publics as rapid, solution-finding tools in response to the climate emergency.

24.08.2025 12:10 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

(🧵2) Most research looks at what happens inside the room: inclusiveness, deliberation quality, or policy outcomes. My article instead looks backstage: the political justifications organisers give when creating climate mini-publics.

24.08.2025 12:10 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

(🧵1) Across the UK since 2019, over 60 local governments and organisations have run climate mini-publics, otherwise known as citizens’ assemblies or juries that deliberate on climate policy. 🌍
But why do organisers set them up in the first place?

24.08.2025 12:10 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

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My first paper is out in @bjpir.bsky.social ! 🎉 It looks at a novel dataset of local climate mini-publics in the UK, and how organisers justify their implementation. Full paper: journals-sagepub-com.libproxy.york.ac.uk/doi/epub/10....

24.08.2025 12:10 — 👍 12    🔁 9    💬 4    📌 0

Another very busy #PSA25 conference over :)

Started the week by officially joining the @psa-parliaments.bsky.social team. Chaired an excellent panel on Parliament as a workplace, and then presented with @katelong.bsky.social on our upcoming paper on climate mini-publics

17.04.2025 11:23 — 👍 7    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0