Climate policymaking is facing a dilemma. At a time when climate change is accelerating and states need to intensify their decarbonization efforts, liberal democracies are suffering from a widespread climate policy backlash. Across Europe and North America, party polarization weakens action on climate change and many political leaders are now referring to an alleged climate fatigue to pause or even roll back green regulation. Democratic innovations are today often presented as a promising response to this new political climate. The concept refers to ongoing efforts (e.g. climate assemblies, citizen dialogues, knowledge co-creation methods) to revive democratic communication and deepen citizen engagement with collective action problems such as climate change. While institutional design varies, democratic innovations promise to create sites of democratic connectivity where diverse publics can collectively explore and cultivate transformative possibilities.
This symposium invites researchers in the field, at LiU or other universities, to reflect on the role of public deliberation and discord in the governance of climate change. We will discuss what forms of public communication democratic innovations make possible; how different innovations are situated in the public sphere and interplay with formal political institutions; how deliberative experiments deal with system-critical contestation and discord; how they can be devised to build public support for transformative agendas.
Organiser and funding
The symposium is sponsored by the Linköping University’s newly established green democratisation laboratory, funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra).
Registration
Available spots are limited and will be distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis. Registration deadline: 17 April 2026.
To register, please contact Susanne Eriksson, at: susanne.eriksson@liu.se.
The event will be held in English.
