UC EVENTS

Presenters

Professor Kerry McCallum (News & Media Research Centre, UC), Dr Selen A Ercan (Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, UC) & Dr Molly Scudder (Purdue University, USA)

Title

Institutional Listening in deliberative democracy

Abstract

This presentation explores the role of listening in deliberative democracy by drawing on our international, cross-disciplinary project on Institutional Listening (Scudder, Ercan & McCallum, 2021). We argue that institutional listening can play an important role in public deliberation, if and when it links the public sphere with formal institutions, and enables the transmission of ideas from former to the latter. We will focus on two recent examples of institutional listening in two different democracies: Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 2013-17 and the United States’ Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. These cases show that institutional listening can take different forms; it can be purposefully designed or incidental, and it can contribute to the realization of deliberative democracy in various ways. Specifically, institutional listening can help enhance the credibility and visibility of minority groups and perspectives while also empowering these groups to better hold formal political institutions accountable. The presentation elaborates on the democratic functions of institutional listening and reflects on the next steps our cross-disciplinary, collaborative project.

Biographies

Selen A. Ercan is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance,  University of Canberra. Her works sits at the intersection of normative theory and empirical research and explores the conditions which democracies can become more inclusive, more deliberative, and more responsive to citizens’ views and lived experiences. Selen’s recent projects and publications on these topics can be found here.

Kerry McCallum is Professor of Communication and Media Studies and Director of the News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra. Kerry’s research specialises in the relationships between changing media and Australian social policy. She is co-author of The Dynamics of News and Indigenous Policy in Australia (Intellect, 2017), and lead investigator on the Australian Research Council funded project ‘Breaking Silences: Media and the Child Abuse Royal Commission’.

Mary F. (Molly) Scudder is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. She is also an associate of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Her area of research is political theory. She is the author of Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation (Oxford University Press, 2020). Molly is currently working on a book with Stephen White, entitled The Two Faces of Democracy: Decentering Agonism and Deliberation.