Sesión Plenaria

“Democracia participativa y elaboración colaborativa de políticas: La experiencia de Escocia”
(Oliver Escobar. University of Edinburgh)

Short Bio

Oliver Escobar is Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh, and Co-Director of What Works Scotland (http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk), a research programme funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and the Scottish Government to improve public services and inform public service innovation and reform.

Oliver’s areas of research, teaching and practice are participatory democracy, public dialogue and deliberation, and collaborative policy-making. He also co-leads the Smart Urban Intermediaries (http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=ES%2FR002991%2F1) and Distant Voices: Coming Home (http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/projects?ref=ES%2FP002536%2F1) research programmes. His most recent research focuses on the interface between citizen participation and social inequalities (e.g. http://www.healthinequalities.net). Oliver is a Trustee of Democratic Audit UK, Beltane Public Engagement Fellow, member of the Scottish Government’s Participatory Budgeting Working Group, Director of ClimateXChange’s Citizens’ Juries, non-executive member of the Scottish Government’s Digital Communications Board, and advisor to DRILL –the world’s largest research programme led by disable people.

He coordinates the Citizen Participation Network, has trained and worked with hundreds of public engagement practitioners, and is involved in developing democratic innovations across various policy arenas in Scotland and beyond.

Twitter: @OliverEscobar
More information: http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/people/academic_staff/oliver_escobar

Recent publications:

• Elstub, S. and Escobar, O. (Eds.) (forthcoming 2018). The Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
  
  Escobar, O. (forthcoming) Pluralism and democratic participation: What kind of citizen are citizens invited to be?, Contemporary Pragmatism.
  
  Escobar, O. and Elstub (2017) Forms of mini-publics: An introduction to deliberative innovations in democratic practice, Research and Development Notes, newDEMOCRACY.
• Escobar, O. (2017) Making it official: Participation professionals and the challenge of institutionalizing deliberative democracy, in Bherer, L., Gauthier , M. & Simard, L. (eds.) The Professionalization of Public Participation, Routledge. 
• Durose et al. (2016) Five ways to make a difference: Perceptions of practitioners working in urban neighborhoods, Public Administration Review, 76(4): 576-586.  
• Harkins, C., Moore, K. and Escobar, O. (2016) Review of 1st Generation Participatory Budgeting in Scotland, Edinburgh: What Works Scotland.