Deliberations

I'm privileged to have been accepted as a volunteer staff member for the Yarra River Values Forum, which will occur Dec 1-3, 2006. This is a citizen's jury organised and facilitated by the Institute for Sustainable Futures, funded by the Smart Water Fund, an initiative of the water suppliers in Melbourne and the Victorian Government. The Smart Water Fund was established to encourage and support innovative development of water saving projects within the community.

A citizens' jury (CJ) offers a more legitimate participatory response than a focus group because it is the citizens who drive their own deliberation towards consensus recommendation. The process is similar to a courtroom jury in that evidence is presented by expert witnesses, although in a CJ the jury asks the questions. They then retire to deliberate on the charge, which is the central topic to be addressed. Unlike most CJs, the Yarra River Values Forum will deliberate about three questions:

1. How do we feel about the Yarra River and how much would we be willing to pay for a residential water conservation programme that would save water to improve the health of the river?
2. How do we feel about putting dollar values on environmental and social impacts--is this a good idea?
3. What are the options for improving the health of the Yarra and which do we prefer?

Although I am interested in these questions, I am more interested in the deliberative process. In particular, I want to see how 24 citizens with a variety of backgrounds and positions can learn about the issues and collaborate to form a coherent recommendation.

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Posted by Ron Lubensky on 22 November 2006 at 03:38 PM | Link