Скачать или смотреть UNCENSORED CONVERSATIONS: Democracy and the role of the public in government responses to COVID19

In this video, Prof Graham Smith, Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster, and Dr Romina Istratii, co-founder of Decolonial Subversions based at SOAS University of London, are discussing the role of the 'public' in government decision-making around COVID-19 responses and explore what could have been/might be alternative decision-making processes that engage better diverse perspectives in the public in the UK and elsewhere.

Graham works on democratic theory and practice, in particular participatory democratic institutions (or democratic innovations) and democracy and the long term. He is Chair of the charity Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development and is currently involved in a project led by the charity Involve and the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster that seeks to understand how participation and deliberation with the public can improve decision-making in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The discussion is part of the new series UNCENSORED CONVERSATIONS: Promoting Open and Critical Discussion about COVID-19 and its Consequences set up by Decolonial Subversions.

Series background
Prior to the virus outbreak, many in the public and the scholarly community were raising important questions about the negative consequences of capitalism and the neoliberal model, the invasion of personal privacy by high-tech companies siding with governments, and the problem of casualisation in academic institutions. Decolonial and other critical perspectives affirmed, in turn, the ‘situatedness’ of all knowledge production.

In the aftermath of the outbreak, many of these critical voices have been side-lined; people have become oblivious to the fact that science is susceptible to subjective bias and political/material pressures; high-tech companies and influential capitalists have suddenly become resourceful; and tracking personal characteristics is not only not being problematised but is proposed as part of alleviation strategies. More disconcertingly, the current mainstream narrative depicts itself as progressive and morally superior and anyone who is more critically reflexive or in any way at odds with this narrative risks being monolithically labelled as ‘irrational’, ‘irresponsible’ or ‘selfish.’

This series aims to subvert on-going totalitarian practices and polarisation among the public before it is too late. Relying ideally on a Socratic – dialogical and exploratory – approach we aim to reinvigorate open, frank and uncensored thinking and talk around COVID-19 and its consequences.

You can read more here: https://www.academia.edu/43160843/UNC...