A Three-Stage Evaluation of a Deliberative Event on Climate Change and Transforming Energy

Formulating deliberative evaluation tools indicates an important new field for the practitioner of deliberative design due to the increasing adoption of deliberative policy mechanisms by governmental and non-governmental organisations. Evaluation tools aid the design, effectiveness and deliberative integrity and legitimacy of these mechanisms. Relatively few studies though have reflected on how to conduct evaluation. Here, we report on our formulation of a three-stage approach to deliberative evaluation, which we applied in an independent evaluation of a Courageous Conversation on Climate Change and Transforming Energy (March 2007), designed by the Ethos Foundation, Queensland, Australia. Overall, we found our schema successful in identifying both the positives and negatives of the design, of what could be applauded and what needed revision. More broadly, we advance that it offers a useful approach for practitioners to develop further, especially in getting the balance right on evaluating process and outputs, to which we have added inputs in reflection of deliberative design advances.