Mini-Public

 

Mini-public is a concept originally developed by political scientists. In  REELER we have, inspired by this work, developed mini-public into a tool for citizen engagement in the topic of robots. It is in our version a method to ‘give voice’ to groups not usually heard in the debates on robots (workers, students, retired people) as well as a debate room which gives voice to both scientists, companies and politicians. In this respect our mini-publics have become ‘meeting’ rooms where citizens affected by robots can speak directly to decision-makers and robot developers. It is our believe that this may improve opportunities for citizens to contribute to parliamentary deliberation on a given topic.

We have had three mini-publics: in 2017 in Cambridge, in 2018 in Copenhagen and in 2019 in Hohenheim. You can read more about the respective mini-publics here.

The Mini-public in 2018 was in Denmark. It was held in Danish and the title was Robots at Work: The impact of robot technologies on future work and education. However whereas the first  

The Mini-public in 2019 was in Hohenheim and focused on robots in agriculture