“Looking back to look forward: Launch of the Research Report on the 1st Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland”

Everyone is welcome to this virtual event hosted by the Edinburgh Futures Institute, CRITIQUE, and the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, in partnership with Newcastle University and Social Research at the Scottish Government.

Event Description

A new generation of democratic innovations is proliferating in Scotland since the turn of the century, including a range of participatory processes and institutions. The Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland (2019-2021) was the first official assembly at national level. Its remit was to consider what kind of country Scotland should be and how to overcome 21st century challenges. It generated 60 recommendations across multiple policy areas and received an official response by the Scottish Government in November 2021.

This event brings together members of the research team that evaluated the assembly. The team was given unprecedented access to carry out mixed methods research into the internal (i.e. process quality) and external (i.e. relationship with institutions and society) dimensions of the Assembly. Drawing on a large evidence base comprising 7 sources of qualitative and quantitative data, the Research Report on the 1st Citizens’ Assembly offers the most comprehensive study of its kind in Scotland.

This event is an opportunity to share and discuss the research findings, while drawing lessons for the future of assemblies and other democratic innovations in Scotland and beyond.

Speakers from the research team:

  • Stephen Elstub (Newcastle University)
  • Evelyn Bowes (Scottish Government Social Research)
  • Tamara Thorne (Scottish Government Social Research)
  • Ailsa Henderson (University of Edinburgh)
  • Nick Bland (Scottish Government Social Research)

Hosted by Oliver Escobar (Edinburgh Futures Institute and CRITIQUE, University of Edinburgh)

Further Information

The Research Report is open access and available here. It is co-authored by Stephen Elstub (Newcastle University), Oliver Escobar (Edinburgh Futures Institute and CRITIQUE, University of Edinburgh), Ailsa Henderson (University of Edinburgh), and the Scottish Government Social Research team led by Tamara Thorne, Nick Bland, and Evelyn Bowes. Additional contributions to the research were made by Barnaby King (Scottish Government Social Research), Max Rozenburg (University of Edinburgh), Michael Vallely (University of Glasgow) and Lucia MacKenzie (University of Edinburgh).

The report produced by the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland is available here.

The Scottish Government response to the Assembly’s findings is available here.

Event Notes

Please note this event will be held on Zoom. Joining instructions will be sent via email on the morning of the event, please look out for this in your inbox.

This session will be recorded and we may use the recording in future.

This session will feature BSL interpretation.