Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy

This book provides a unique collection of over 30 methods to study deliberative democracy. Written in an accessible style, it provides guidance for scholars and students on how to conduct rigorous and creative research on the public sphere, structured forums, and political institutions.

List of contents

• Foreword, Graham Smith


• 1: Deliberative Democracy: Key Approaches and Methods, Selen A. Ercan, Hans Asenbaum, Nicole Curato, Ricardo F. Mendonça


• Part 1. Theorizing Deliberation


• 2: Methods of Theorizing, Simone Chambers


• 3: Formal Models, James Johnson


• 4: Grounded Normative Theory, Genevieve Fuji Johnson


• 5: Democratic Theorizing, Hans Asenbaum


• Part 2. Measuring Deliberation


• 6: Discourse Quality Index, Andre Bächtiger, Marlène Gerber and Eléonore Fournier-Tombs


• 7: Deliberative Reason Index, Simon Niemeyer and Francesco Veri


• 8: Listening Quality Index, Mary F. Scudder


• 9: Macro-level Assessment of Deliberative Quality, Dannica FleuSS


• 10: Online Deliberation Matrix, Raphaël Kies


• 11: Experimental Methods, Kimmo Grönlund and Kaisa Herne


• 12: Deliberative Field Experiments, Jon Kingzette and Michael Neblo


• 13: Scenario Experiments, Hannah Werner and Lala Muradova


• 14: Survey Methods, John Gastil


• 15: Social Network Analysis, Eduardo M. da Silva, Antonio Carlos A. Ribeiro and Silvio S. Higgins


• 16: Big Data Analysis, Núria Franco-Guillén, Sebastian de Laile and John Parkinson


• 17: Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Matt Ryan


• Part 3. Exploring Deliberation


• 18: Ethnography, Nicole Curato and Nicole Doerr


• 19: Rhetorical Criticism, John Rountree


• 20: Process Tracing, Jonathan Pickering


• 21: Q Methodology, Lucy J. Parry


• 22: Dramaturgical Analysis, Selen A. Ercan and Carolyn Hendriks


• 23: Narrative Analysis, John Boswell


• 24: Frame Analysis, Ricardo F. Mendonça and Paula G. Simões


• 25: Talk-based Analysis, Paromita Sanyal


• 26: Media Analysis, Rousiley C. M. Maia and Tariq Choucair


• 27: Mixed Methods, Oliver Escobar


• 28: Case Study Research, Stephen Elstub and Gianfranco Pomatto


• Part 4. Enacting Deliberation


• 29: Deliberative Policy Analysis, Hendrik Wagenaar


• 30: Action Research, Kiran Cunningham and Lillian Muyomba-Tamale


• 31: Community of Inquiry, Kei Nishiyama


• 32: Deliberative Camp, Donatella della Porta and Andrea Felicetti


• Part 5. Concluding Reflections


• 33: Mutual Need, Jane Mansbridge

About the author

Selen A. Ercan is a Professor of Political Science and Director at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Her research interests include theory and practice of deliberative democracy, identity politics and multiculturalism, and alternative forms of political participation. Selen's work has been published in International Political Science Review, Political Studies, Policy and Politics, and Social Movement Studies, amongst others. She is the author of Mending Democracy: Democratic Repair in Disconnected Times (with Hendriks and Boswell; OUP, 2020); and the editor of Deliberative Systems in Theory and Practice (with Elstub and Mendonça; Routledge, 2019).

Hans Asenbaum is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra and holds a PhD from the University of Westminster. His research interests include identity and inclusion in new participatory spaces, digital politics, and feminist and gender theory. Hans' work has been published in the American Political Science Review, New Media & Society, Communication Theory, and Politics & Gender. He is Co-convener of the Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association in the UK.

Nicole Curato is a Professor of Political Sociology at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She is the author of Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedy to Deliberative Action (OUP, 2019) and the editor of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy. Her work examines how democratic innovations can take root in the aftermath of tragedies, including disasters, conflict, and urban crime.

Ricardo F. Mendonça is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and a Research Fellow at the Brazilian National Institute for Digital Democracy. He is the coordinator of Margem - Research Group on Democracy and Justice. He holds a fellowship from CNPq (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and a fellowship from Fapemig (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais). His research focuses on the theory and practice of democracy, political communication, and contentious politics. His publications include Deliberative Systems in Theory and Practice (with Elstub and Ercan; Routledge, 2019), Introduction to Democratic Theory (with Cunha; UFMG, 2018), Online Deliberation in Brazil (with Sampaio and Barros; UDUFBA, 2016).

Summary

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Deliberative democracy is a diverse and rapidly growing field of research. But how can deliberative democracy be studied? Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy provides a unique collection of over 30 methods to study deliberative democracy. Written in an accessible style, it provides guidance for scholars and students on how to conduct rigorous and creative research on the public sphere, structured forums, and political institutions. Each chapter introduces a particular method, elaborates its utility in deliberative democracy research, and provides guidance on its application, as well as illustrations from previous studies. This book celebrates the methodological pluralism in the field, and hopes to inspire scholars to undertake methodologically robust, intellectually creative, and politically relevant empirical research.

Additional text

This book provides an in-depth and well-rounded exploration of methods and theories of deliberation. For scholars whose aim is to provide insight on the causes and consequences of deliberations, this book is essential reading.

Product details

• Authors: Selen A. (Associate Professor of Political Ercan, Selen A. (Professor of Political Science Ercan
• Assisted by: Hans Asenbaum (Editor), Nicole Curato (Editor), Selen A. Ercan (Editor), Ricardo F. Mendonça (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2022
• EAN: 9780192873361
• ISBN: 978-0-19-287336-1
• No. of pages: 528
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, Political science & theory, Political structures: democracy, Political science and theory