The coronavirus pandemic disrupted established ways of doing democracy. This was particularly the case for citizens’ assemblies that have been increasingly commissioned by public authorities to help tackle complex policy problems. The social restrictions adopted in response to the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the ‘deliberative wave’, making the in-person participation of citizens’ assemblies unviable. It forced deliberative practitioners to rethink their standard mode of operation. In this paper, we adopt social practice theory to make sense of how the meanings, competencies and materials associated with the practice of deliberative mini-publics were challenged and, at times, reformulated as practitioners were forced to adapt to digital delivery. Our findings highlight that while aspects of deliberative practice such as inclusivity were rethought, the established identity and competencies of practitioners played a constraining role in the choices and applications of technology.

中文翻译：

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扰乱商议？疫情对协商参与社会实践的影响


冠状病毒大流行扰乱了民主的既定方式。对于越来越多地受公共当局委托帮助解决复杂政策问题的公民集会来说尤其如此。为应对冠状病毒大流行而采取的社会限制扰乱了“商议浪潮”，使公民集会的亲自参与变得不可行。它迫使深思熟虑的从业者重新思考他们的标准运作模式。在本文中，我们采用社会实践理论来理解与协商性迷你公众实践相关的含义、能力和材料如何受到挑战，并且有时随着从业者被迫适应数字化交付而重新表述。我们的研究结果强调，虽然包容性等协商实践的各个方面得到了重新思考，但从业者的既定身份和能力在技术的选择和应用中发挥了限制作用。