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Global Citizens’ Assembly Network

Research Programme

: Our Research Agenda

Our research provides a foundation for advancing scholarly and practical knowledge on global and transnational citizen deliberation. We have developed a unique framework that builds on the extensive research in deliberative democracy and connects it with the unique features and findings from our own inquiries on citizen deliberation in global and transnational arenas. These are some of the questions we ask:

  1. Convening: Who sets the agenda in global citizen deliberation?

    We investigate the agenda-setting process in global and transnational citizens’ assemblies. We conduct research on how topics are determined and remits are framed. We examine actors, institutions, and mechanisms that wield power in deciding what should be the theme and scope of global deliberations, and consider how agenda-setting can be democratised in theory and practice.
  2. Governing: How can global citizens’ assemblies be organised democratically?

    We explore the governance of global citizens’ assemblies. We draw on comparative research from local, national, and transnational assemblies to examine how global citizens’ assemblies can be managed based on the principles of deliberative democracy, including inclusiveness, fairness, openness, and critical reflection.
  3. Grounding: How can global citizens’ assemblies connect to local contexts?

    We document grassroots practices and innovations that link global and transnational deliberation to local practices. Our research focuses on strategies that enhance the real-world impact of global deliberation, acknowledging existing forms of organisation, mobilisation, and participation and ensuring the relevance of new deliberative forums to people’s lived experiences.
  4. Docking: How can global citizens’ assemblies influence global governance?

    We examine how global citizen deliberation can reshape the way global governance works, identifying mechanisms to connect global citizens to international arenas, their prospects, and pitfalls. We work with scholars of international relations, global politics, and discourse entrepreneurs to investigate pathways for global citizens’ assemblies to generate meaningful influence on global decision-making.

Our Approach

We take a power-sensitive approach to researching global citizens’ assemblies. We recognise that citizens’ assemblies never take place in a vacuum. They occur in contexts marked by material, digital, political, social, and discursive inequalities. Our role as researchers is to document and analyse how inequalities are replicated, constructed, and overcome, and, in so doing, open an honest conversation on what global citizens’ assemblies can realistically achieve in the face of power. This approach is inspired by the Evaluation Report of the Global Assembly.

Our network also seeks to contribute to centring the experience and knowledge of communities from the majority world. Our network is mainly composed of Global South diasporic settlers, and we continuously seek to expand our network to include new researchers from, based in, and conducting research about the majority world.