Boosting, not replacing

Online deliberation tools in a face-to-face student citizens’ assembly

Abstract

This article investigates the cautious approach to digitalising face-to-face deliberation and re-evaluates the benefits of online deliberation in the post-COVID era, where hybrid processes have multiplied. Our study focuses on how specific online deliberation tools can be used to complement offline deliberation. Certain functionalities can be combined with face-to-face deliberation to expand the range of deliberative tactics and enable deliberative processes to proceed with features that are less convenient offline.

The analysis focuses on two software programmes specifically designed to facilitate high-quality online deliberation: Decidim and pol.is. The authors used these tools in the context of a university mini-public – a student citizen assembly at Université Paris Est Créteil – which they helped organise. These tools provided features that advanced the various stages of the deliberative process, which took place mainly offline. This study explains how these tools, based on their affordances and use of their functionalities in designing the deliberative process, boosted face-to-face deliberation by enhancing the pedagogy, inclusivity, comprehensiveness, transparency, continuity, legitimacy, and accountability of the process, without resulting in online deliberation per se.