Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3255: Deliberating the Environmental Emergency: The Citizens' Assembly

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This module will equip you with the latest scientific knowledge on the major causes and consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss. You will learn about policy solutions to these problems, on the key sectors contributing to them, such as energy, transport, infrastructure, food and consumption. Understanding and awareness of these issues is critical for the next generation of politics graduates who will be challenged to find solutions to these issues in a range of employment, community and policy contexts.

The environmental crisis is a cross-cutting issue that requires knowledge and input from more than one sector and discipline. The course will thus be enriched with a series of guest speakers, including academics providing expertise based on their own and others’ research, and stakeholders and practitioners sharing their experience.  

You will learn about the role of deliberative public engagement in the policy process through first-hand experience of engaging in a Citizens’ Assembly run as a key component of the module. You will also acquire key transferable skills through the moderation of, and participation in, group deliberations. With its applied focus, the module will also provide you with an opportunity to get involved in devising policy solutions to achieve sustainability in the national context.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge about the design and conduct of Citizens’ Assemblies
2. Understanding the environmental emergency from a trans-disciplinary perspective
Discipline-Specific Skills3. Demonstrate detailed and comprehensive knowledge of environmental policies related to climate change and the protection of biodiversity, as well as the challenges associated to implementing these policies
4. Understand the role, potential and limitations of citizen deliberation in developing policy recommendations
Personal and Key Skills5. Moderate and facilitate group deliberations
6. Use lessons from research to inform policy development

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

  • Bathiany, S., Dakos, V., Scheffer, M. & Lenton, T. (2018) ‘Climate models predict increasing temperature variability in poor countries’. Science Advances.  May 2018.
  • Bellard, C., Bertelsmeier, C., Leadley, P., Thuiller, W., Courchamp. (2012). ‘Impacts of climate change on the future of biodiversity’. Ecology Letters, 15(4): 365-377.
  • Bulkeley, H. & Newell, P. (2015) Governing Climate Change (Global Institutions). 2nd Edition. London: Routledge.
  • Devaney, L. Torney, D., Brereton, P and Coleman, M. (2019). Deepening public engagement on Climate Change: Lessons from the Citizens’ Assembly. EPA Research Report, Dublin City University.
  • Devine-Wright, P. and Cotton, M. (2017) ‘Experiencing citizen deliberation over energy infrastructure siting: a mixed method evaluative study’. In S. Bouzarovski, M.J. Pasqualetti, V. Castán Broto (Eds.) The Routledge Research Companion to Energy Geographies. Oxford: Routledge, pp. 165-177.
  • Dryzek, J.S. et al. (2019). ‘The crisis of democracy and the science of deliberation’, Science, 363 (6432): 1144-1146.
  • Evans, J.P. (2011) Environmental Governance (Routledge Introductions to Environment: Environment & Society Texts). London: Routledge.
  • Falkner, R. (Ed). (2013). The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy. John Wiley & Sons.
  • Farrell, D.M., Suiter, J. & Harris, C. (2019). ‘Systematizing’ constitutional deliberation: the 2016-18 citizens’ assembly in Ireland’. Irish Political Studies, 34(1): 113-123.
  • Fishkin, James S. (2009). When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Geissel, B. & Newton, K. (Eds). (2012). Evaluating Democratic Innovations: Curing the Democratic Malaise? London & New York: Routledge.
  • Niemeyer, S. (2013). Democracy and Climate Change: What Can Deliberative Democracy Contribute? Australian Journal of Politics and History, 59(3), 430-449.
  • Sanderson H, Hildén M, Russel DJ, Penha-Lopes G, Capriolo A (Eds.) (2018). Adapting to Climate Change in Europe: Exploring Sustainable Pathways - From Local Measures to Wider Policies. 1st Edition. Elsevier
  • Smith, G. 2009. Democratic Innovations: Designing Institutions for Citizen Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.