6 DEMOCS: ‘The game to play to have your say’

6.1 Introduction

Reading 5 ends with a call for a move towards a more ‘deliberative democracy’ in which public engagement takes place in parallel with the development of new technologies, so that opportunities are provided for ongoing dialogue and influence between the two. To help to achieve this, the authors argue, ‘… now is the right time to start experimenting with new forms of democratic debate’.

One such innovative approach, developed by the New Economics Foundation (nef), with support from the Wellcome Trust, are DEMOCS (Deliberative Meetings Of CitizenS): ‘conversation card games’ to enable small groups of people to find out about, discuss and work towards consensus on policy in relation to a range of science (and other) issues.