Daniel Rozenberg

Research project

Project title: The French Citizen’s Convention for Climate: Participatory Democratic Design to enhance citizens’ agency in addressing questions of self-governance?

Project description: In response to the ‘Gilets Jaunes’ movement, and the feelings of the illegitimacy of French government which sparked it, President Macron organised a Citizen’s Convention for Climate. 150 citizens were randomly selected to deliberate in a unique model of ‘co-construction’ with experts, and then proposed measures which now constitute a Climate Bill, as well as constitutional amendments to be approved by national referendum.

My research will suggest that the ensuing questions of governance arising from such a forum, which interrupts France’s existing constitutional spatial organisation, can be answered by analysing the parallels between participatory research in both design and democracy.

The project will go on to explore the possibility of the further institutionalisation of Citizen’s Conventions in France, extending the scope to the deliberation of constitutional issues, in the context of the debate on a 6th Republic. My research will use comparative, socio-legal and ‘designerly’ methods in order to assess the risks and benefits of Citizen’s Conventions in France in particular, and Participatory Democratic Design in general.