In 2002, the 14 members of the Consensus Conference met in Denmark to answer the question, "How can we determine the price of environmental benefits and pollution so that these factors come to form part of an economic analysis in an acceptable way?"
Problems and Purpose
Background History and Context
In the mid-1980s, the Danish government created the Danish Board of Technology (DBT), a body of experts set up to assess technological innovations and their impact for Danish society. The DBT was asked to initiate reflections and to formulate recommendations on various technology-related issues. In order to involve citizens in its work, the DBT developed the format of consensus conference composed of lay citizens selected by lot, and gathered for a few days to deliberative on a topic (with the help of experts). In total, the DBT organized more than 20 consensus conferences between 1987 and 2011. The DBT was then dissolved by the Danish Government in 2011. Consensus conferences remain used in Denmark but by the successor of the DBT, the Danish Board of Technology Foundation. It has become a private operator, and not a public one. [1]
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
The Danish Board of Technology, now the Danish Board of Technology Foundation, organized this process.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
The panel of lay citizens first recommended acknowledging that the environment has an intrinsic value that goes beyond economic calculations. Nevertheless, it recommended parliament and government develop a framework to set the boundaries and possibilities of the environmental economy, and that citizens be directly involved in the process. It is unclear how these recommendations have been integrated into new public policies. [1]
Analysis and Lessons Learned
See Also
Danish Consensus Conference on Noise
References
[1] Paulis, Emilien; Pilet, Jean-Benoit; Panel, Sophie; Vittori, Davide; Close, Caroline, 2020, "POLITICIZE Dataset", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/Z7X6GT, Harvard Dataverse, V1
External Links
Notes
Data was sourced from OECD (2020), Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/339306da-en.