Project seeking assembly partner for more-than-human experimentation

The University of Sydney and DemocracyNext will be collaborating on a new project: “Including the more-than-human in decision making”. As part of this project, they are looking to work with a climate or biodiversity citizens’ assembly taking place in Europe during 2026 / 2027. If you are involved in or know of an assembly taking place that might be interested in partnering, please contact Danielle Celermajer at the University of Sydney danielle.celermajer@sydney.edu.au

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Recent decades have seen increasing recognition of the need to involve the more-than-human in decision making. Around the world, communities and organisations are taking actions, not only to protect the planet, but to transform how people relate to the natural world. They are enabling us to imagine what our worlds would look like if all animals and the natural world were included in the decisions that are shaping how we live.

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The “Including the more-than-human in decision making” project aims to:

• Create an inventory of existing methods, approaches, and their impact, taking a curious and critical lens to understanding this emerging field.

• Conduct two original experiments on more-than-human inclusion in decision making. The first experiment will involve adaptation planning in Australia, and the second, a climate or biodiversity citizens’ assembly in Europe. The objective is to test how different models of more-than-human inclusion can be put into practice in real world decision-making contexts, and to evaluate their impacts on participants, processes, and decisions.

• Support a global community of practice to connect practitioners and share knowledge and learning across continents. The community of practice will aim to offer those conducting similar experiments in different contexts with a platform for sharing experiences and learning, with a view to supporting and elevating the quality of practice across the field.

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The project is supported by the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation.

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