Listening Across Differences
Facilitators' Perspectives from Austrian Mini-Publics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47061/jasc.v5i1.9129Keywords:
listening, empathy, group facilitation, deliberative democracy, mini-publicsAbstract
Deliberative mini-publics, created through sortition and stratified sampling, reflect the broader diversity of the larger whole. While these mini-publics are usually facilitated, the lived experience of facilitators in this role has seldom been explored. Facilitators’ accounts of the joys and challenges of facilitating mini-publics in the state of Vorarlberg, Austria illuminate the nuances of embodying active listening and interpersonal empathy in this context, with implications for both deliberative theory and practice.
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