A citizens’ jury of 26 Birmingham residents deliberated over 30 hours on what the city needs from its museums, producing recommendations on funding, inclusion, engagement, and accessibility, and redefining museums as civic institutions shaped by public voice.
Problems and Purpose
Museums and other cultural institutions have often faced criticism for their lack of significant public involvement in governance and decision-making procedures. Conventional consultation techniques often rely on self-selection, which limits representativeness and hinders organisations' capacity to collect diverse and well-informed public viewpoints. However, democratic innovations like citizens’ juries were designed to help improve legitimacy and participation [1,p.1] The Birmingham Museums Trust created the Birmingham Museums Citizens' Jury in collaboration with Shared Future and DemocracyNext in response to the expanding discussions surrounding accessibility, inclusiveness, community involvement, and democratic legitimacy within cultural governance [2]. Their process aimed to provide a structured form of deliberative participation that is capable of producing informed recommendations from the public to help the future role of museums in Birmingham. This citizens’ jury also aimed to strengthen the community involvement and ensure that the decision making reflected a wider range of Birmingham residents opposed to only people who attended museums currently [2].
This Citizens Jury was designed to assist participants in navigating complex problems about museum accessibility, funding, representation, and public value through facilitated discussion and expert evidence. The main question in this process was "What does Birmingham need and want from its museums now and in the future, and what should Birmingham Museums Trust do to make these things happen?”In general, the process represented broader movements toward participatory governance in public institutions, where deliberative democratic processes are increasingly being used to boost institutional legitimacy, develop informed suggestions, and promote long-term civic involvement [3,p.1].
Background History and Context
History and demographics
Birmingham is one of the first ‘super diverse’ cities in the UK and is central in the Industrial Revolution of the UK [4]. This demographic complexity and industrial history makes it a good area for testing participatory and deliberative governance in diverse urban settings.
Due to its development being centred on the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham generated long-term patterns of labour migration. This positioned the city as dependent on migration for economic growth. During the post-industrial period and deindustrialisation there was economic instability and restructuring, leading to some areas experiencing regeneration and some experiencing severe deprivation. As a result, the urban landscape became geographically unequal, with uneven access to public services and infrastructure across neighbourhoods [5]
