Auroville Citizens’ Assembly Pilot (Exploring the potential of randomly selected community members in collective decision-making)

Aggarwal, Anshul; Eveleigh, Helen; Branagan, Lesley; Clarence-Smith, Suryamayi Auroville Citizens’ Assembly Pilot (Exploring the potential of randomly selected community members in collective decision-making). Project Report. Self, Auroville.

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Abstract

A pilot Citizens’ Assembly was undertaken in Auroville in early 2021 to determine whether and how this tool could increase participation, skill-building and community-building in collective decision-making processes in Auroville. The initiative also aimed to explore the Assembly model’s potential for increasing community awareness and education on the issues under consideration, and in producing outcomes that were considered valid for both the community at large and its Working Groups. This pilot process, on the community-proposed topic of ‘A Water Vision for Auroville’, was held on alternate weekends during January-March 2021. The pilot showed success in engaging community members that had never, or only rarely, engaged in collective decision-making – and the majority said they would participate in a Citizens’ Assembly again if they were selected. Participants found the process to be the most rewarding part of the assembly, and gave significant value to the building of their skills around bias and listening. An overwhelming majority of participants said they would trust a Citizens’ Assembly process for dealing with other community issues in future. The outcomes were not only a Water Vision for Auroville, but accompanying suggestions for its implementation (while educational videos on water in Auroville produced for the Assembly are now publicly available as an educational resource). In final feedback sessions, the community at large, water players and Working Groups were all positive about the model’s potential as a collective decision-making tool for Auroville. They supported the pilot’s outcomes, yet were concerned that these might not be implemented due to lack of sustained community effort. The organising team is now focusing on follow-up and implementation of the pilot’s outcomes, and is also exploring topics for another pilot assembly which would have predefined implementation pathways.

Item Type:	Monograph (Project Report)
Subjects:	Collective Organisation > Collective Organisation (General) Water > Water (General) Water > Awareness/Society
Depositing User:	Anshul Aggarwal
Date Deposited:	21 Apr 2023 12:45
Last Modified:	21 Apr 2023 12:45
URI:	http://aurorepo.in/id/eprint/246

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