James Henderson reflects on his think piece from November 2015 which considers the potential for community anchors and the community sector to be central to local democratic and inequalities-focused approaches to public service reform in Scotland.

Claudia Chwalisz, senior policy researcher, discusses political participation for citizens. The blog, from August 2015, explores case studies where people have been given a genuine voice in decision making, following Claudia’s research for The Populist Signal.

Guest blogger Robert Picciotto explores whether the democratic evaluation model from half a century ago is still fit for purpose in April 2015. Are current democratic evaluations adapted to modern-day challenges?

Alistair Stoddart of The Democratic Society, shares some initial thoughts in March 2015 from the Better Place forum, a gathering of community development workers, academics, campaigners, public service managers, and local and national senior officials to look at ways to allow greater citizen involvement in public service decisions and delivery.

Christian Storstein shares a blog post from the Democratic Sector Day, organised by Oliver Escobar and colleagues from What Works Scotland.

Claudia Chwalisz will present the key findings in The People’s Verdict, a study of 50 long-form deliberative processes, where randomly selected citizens have played key roles in decision-making.The session will include opportunities for participants to discuss the book’s findings and the role that Scotland can play in advancing democratic innovation.