Trust Democracy is pleased to announce that Dr Emily Beausoleil, one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading democratic scholars, will be presenting at our 2024 AGM.
We welcome non-members for Dr Beausoleil’s presentation, which is the first agenda item. Please register to attend the AGM and receive the Zoom details.
Democracy in settler-colonial societies – weapon or tool?
Democracy at core is committed to all those affected by a decision having a meaningful voice in making that decision. How can this be realised in contexts of ongoing settler-colonization like Aotearoa New Zealand? Majority rule mechanisms – voting or referenda – are blunt instruments in achieving this core democratic aim, and can replicate the dominance of settler voices who form a demographic majority. Deliberation, where decisions emerge from an exchange and consideration of a range of views, is meant to allow reason to check power and enable minority views to win the day. And yet, particularly when deliberation is a demographic avatar of broader society, it can also unwittingly replicate the dominance of settler voices and views. In this talk, Emily will outline some of these risks for deliberative practitioners and scholars working in settler-colonial contexts, and offer some initial reflections and recommendations so that, as practised here, deliberation might come closer to achieving its own ideals.
About Emily Beausoleil
Dr Beausoleil is a Senior Lecturer of Politics at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University, where she explores the conditions, challenges, and creative possibilities for democratic engagement in diverse societies, with particular attention to the capacity for ‘voice’ and listening in conditions of inequality. She is Editor-in-Chief for Democratic Theory Journal, Distinguished Global Associate of the Sydney Democracy Network, Associate Investigator for the current Australian Research Council grant ‘Democratic Resilience: The Public Sphere and Extremist Attacks,’ and Research Associate of He Whenua Taurikura – Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism Centre for Research Excellence. Her Marsden research on listening in the context of structural injustice won the 2021 Royal Society Te Āparangi’s Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Sciences, and alongside over 30 articles, her first book, Staging Democracy: The Political Work of Live Performance, inaugurated a book series with De Gruyter in 2023.
AGM Agenda
- Dr Emily Beausoleil: Democracy in settler-colonial societies – weapon or tool?
- Minutes of the previous AGM
- Annual Report, Financial Statements and Committee disclosures
- Election of Committee members
- Setting of membership fees
- General business