Professor Graham Smith
Professor Graham Smith
Topics: Democracy – Politics – Climate crisis
Graham Smith is an academic, practitioner and activist working on democratic innovation in the face of the climate and ecological crisis.
He is Professor of Politics at the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster, although currently spends much of his time as chair of the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) funded by the European Climate Foundation. KNOCA aims to improve the commissioning, design, delivery, follow-up and evaluation of climate assemblies to enhance impact on climate governance. Based on this work, he recently published the short, open access book We Need To Talk About Climate: How Citizens’ Assemblies Can Help Us Solve the Climate Crisis.
Smith’s work has influenced both governments and civil society organisations and he was recognised by Apolitical as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Academics in Government. He was part of the teams that designed the world’s first permanent citizens’ assembly in Ostbelgien and the world’s first permanent climate assembly in the Brussels Capital Region. In the early days of Extinction Rebellion, Smith build the capacity of activists to advocate for citizens’ assemblies and he continues to work with activists and artists committed to building a democratic response to the climate and ecological crisis.
Smith’s 2009 book Democratic Innovations: Designing Institutions for Citizen Participation is widely recognised as key to establishing this area of study. Other recent publications include Democracy in a Pandemic: Participation in Response to Crisis– an open access collection edited with colleagues at the participation charity Involve – and Can Democracy Safeguard the Future?.
Graham’s best bits:
Podcast appearances:
Is democracy doomed to fail us in the long term? – RSA Bridges to the Future
Go big, repair our democracy – Reasons To Be Cheerful podcast
Can Democracy Safeguard the Future? – New Books Network
Community engagement improves decision making – Covid-19 and Democracy
Interview with Institute for Future Studies:
We need to talk about climate: KNOCKA: