Search Results (205)

The justice system has increasingly applied AI techniques for legal judgment to enhance efficiency. However, most AI techniques focus on decision-making outcomes, failing to capture the deliberative nature of the real-world judicial process. To address these challenges, we propose a large language model-based multi-agent framework named AgentsBench. Our approach leverages multiple LLM-driven agents that simulate the discussion process of the Chinese judicial bench, which is often composed of professional and lay judge agents. We conducted experiments on a legal judgment prediction task, and the results show that our framework outperforms existing LLM-based methods in terms of performance and decision quality. By incorporating these elements, our framework reflects real-world judicial processes more closely, enhancing accuracy, fairness, and societal consideration. While the simulation is based on China’s lay judge system, our framework is generalizable and can be adapted to various legal scenarios and other legal systems involving collective decision-making processes. Full article

The integration of renewable energy into power grids is imperative for reducing carbon emissions and mitigating reliance on depleting fossil fuels. In this paper, we develop symmetric and asymmetric evolutionary game-theoretic models to analyze how user–grid cooperation in peak shaving can be enhanced by incorporating whole-process democracy (deliberative governance) into decision-making. Our framework captures excess returns, cooperation-driven profits, energy pricing, participation costs, and benefit-sharing coefficients to identify equilibrium conditions under varied subsidy, cost, and market scenarios. Furthermore, this study integrates the theory, path, and mechanism of deliberative procedures under the perspective of whole-process democracy, exploring how inclusive and participatory decision-making processes can enhance cooperation in renewable energy systems. We simulate seven scenarios that systematically adjust subsidy rates, cost–benefit structures, dynamic pricing, and renewable-versus-conventional competitiveness, revealing that robust cooperation emerges only under well-aligned incentives, equitable profit sharing, and targeted financial policies. These scenarios systematically vary these key parameters to assess the robustness of cooperative equilibria under diverse economic and policy conditions. Our findings indicate that policy efficacy hinges on deliberative stakeholder engagement, fair profit allocation, and adaptive subsidy mechanisms. These results furnish actionable guidelines for regulators and grid operators to foster sustainable, low-carbon energy systems and inform future research on demand response and multi-source integration. Full article

Deliberative approaches to governance systems analysis and improvement are rare. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) provides the context to describe an innovative approach that combines reflexive and interactive engagement processes to (a) develop and design a framework to assess the GBR’s complex governance system health; and (b) undertake a benchmark assessment of governance system health. We drew upon appreciative inquiry and used multiple lines of evidence, including an extensive literature review, governance system mapping, focus group discussions and personal interviews. Together, these approaches allowed us to effectively engage key actors in value judgements about twenty key characteristic attributes of the governance system. These attributes were organised into four clusters which enabled us to broadly describe and benchmark the system. These included the following: (i) system coherence; (ii) connectivity and capacity; (iii) knowledge application; (iv) operational aspects of governance. This process facilitated deliberative discussion and consensus-building around attribute health and priorities for transformative action. This was achieved through the inclusion of diverse perspectives from across the governance system, analysis of rich datasets, and the provision of guidance from the project’s Steering Committee and Technical Working Group. Our inclusive, collaborative and deliberative approach, its analytical depth, and the framework’s repeatability enable continuous monitoring and adaptive improvement of the GBR governance system and can be readily applied to complex governance systems elsewhere. Full article

This article presents a theological framework of a Theology of Living, which seeks to reimagine the task of theology as a lived, communal and practical enterprise. Departing from purely systematic or disembodied approaches, this theology emphasises the relational and contextual dimensions of Christian faith. The embedded nature of theology acknowledges that theological reflection is always situated within particular histories, cultures and communities. The deliberative dimension foregrounds the necessity of intentional, dialogical discernment in response to complex moral and spiritual challenges. The embodied aspect affirms that theology is not merely spoken or written, but enacted through the rhythms of everyday life, worship and service. Drawing upon pastoral experience, biblical reflection and theological discourse, this article proposes that such an integrated approach to theology not only bridges the gap between doctrine and practice but also reclaims theology’s vocational role in forming individuals and communities shaped by love, justice and hope. Full article

This study examines how climate citizens’ assemblies (CCAs) influence youth engagement, both in practice and in shaping perceptions of political “voice”, drawing on Albert O. Hirschman’s “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” framework. Through qualitative analysis of 71 interviews, participatory workshops, and observational data across four cities—Barcelona, Bologna, Geneva, and Paris—it explores whether CCAs address youth climate activists’ demands, enable meaningful participation, and yield policy outcomes aligned with their claims. Findings reveal divergent perceptions: in Bologna, co-design with activists tended to foster trust, while Barcelona saw disillusionment due to unmet expectations. Geneva’s embedded deliberative processes strengthened institutional loyalty, whereas Paris faced skepticism as activists turned to civil disobedience. Overall, CCAs’ effectiveness hinges on inclusivity, follow-through, and communication; when perceived as tokenistic, they risk reinforcing disengagement (“exit”). The study underscores the need for embedded, responsive democratic innovations to sustain youth participation amid climate crises. Full article

This study examines the constrained social acceptance of small-scale geothermal energy in a rural sub-Saharan region, a critically understudied area, characterised by high energy poverty, heavy dependence on biomass, and suitable for geothermal energy exploration. Small-scale geothermal energy may offer an additional option for decentralised power supply through mini grids. The study investigates public awareness and knowledge level of geothermal energy technologies among the residents of Eka Awoke, Ikwo, Ebonyi State, Nigeria, to assess the potential of the deliberative process to enhance the social acceptance of geothermal energy technologies and the development of an improved participatory framework to aid the discussion. Citizen jury and survey methods, combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques, were employed. This study presents the first in-depth analysis of the social acceptance of small-scale geothermal energy for electricity supply in a rural African context. Pre-deliberative assessments revealed that 36% of the jurors had limited knowledge and expressed environmental concerns. The post-deliberative assessment revealed that over 80% of jurors reported improved understanding and views. The study demonstrates that citizen jury, when combined with surveyed results can serve as a powerful and scalable tool for advancing social acceptance of geothermal energy. These findings provide a solid foundation for policymakers, stakeholders, and energy providers to design more effective communication engagement strategies for sustainable energy transition in the community. Full article

Climate adaptation in urban environments is often constrained by rigid institutional rules and fragmented governance, which limit inclusive and context-specific planning of public spaces such as schoolyards. This study addresses this challenge by examining how collaborative planning can transform schoolyards, from asphalt-dominated, monofunctional spaces into green, climate-resilient community assets. The research employed the Institutional Analysis and Development framework within a qualitative case study design. Two public schools in the San Cristóbal de los Ángeles neighbourhood of Madrid served as case studies, with data collected through document analysis, participant observation, and interviews with municipal officials, urban planners, educators, and community members. Results indicate that the collaborative planning process reshaped rules in use, expanded the network of actors, and transformed decision-making processes. Existing rules were flexibly reinterpreted to allow new uses of space. Children, teachers, and residents became co-producers of the public space, expanding the governance network, where new deliberative practices emerged that improved coordination across people and organisations. These institutional changes occurred without formal regulatory reform, but with the reinterpretation of the game’s rules by each organisation. Thus, schoolyards can serve as laboratories for institutional innovation and participatory climate adaptation, demonstrating how urban experiments have the potential to catalyse not only physical transformations but also transformations in urban management. Full article

The time is nigh to organize the physical landscapes of the United States under a unified land use policy and planning framework. As human populations have steadily grown, so has the urgency for agencies to plan for land uses at broader scales to overcome continued jurisdictional fragmentation and achieve sustainable and environmentally just landscapes. This paper introduces a vision, conceptual approach, and implementation strategy that applies ecoregions and proposes a unified framework for land use planning and regulation in the United States. The Sustainable Ecoregion Program (SEP) is designed to enable local landowners; public stakeholders; other land users; and state, regional, tribal, and national natural resource professionals to set and achieve future desired conditions for sustainable land uses across landscapes. The objective is to outline a comprehensive and sustainably just solution to the recurring problem of managing conflicting land uses in the face of continued degradation and multiple land tenure systems. The SEP will determine how much of the physical landscape will go to developed, agricultural, and natural landcover types. The framework includes recognition of level III ecoregions as primary boundaries, proposed secondary boundaries and shapes to enhance connectivity and movement across landscapes, a proposed structure for the environmental governance and co-management of landscapes, and definitions of physical landscape types. The benefits and challenges of the SEP are discussed. The outcomes of the SEP include ecological integrity, sustainable land use management, deliberative democracy, just sustainability, and improved quality of life for residents of the United States. Full article

Background: This study explored the experiences and insights of providers who support fathers experiencing family breakdown, separation, and divorce (FBSD). Methods: Nine practitioners who work for organizations in the United Kingdom supporting fathers experiencing FBSD were interviewed using deliberative inquiry. The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis to identify key themes. Results: The findings highlighted four primary themes: ‘Support Needed by Fathers’, ‘Barriers for Organizations’, ‘Best Practice’, and ‘Recommendations’. Conclusions: The results mirror previous findings with fathers themselves and illuminate the immense challenges faced by organizations supporting them. Participants offered valuable insights into the necessary reform and change required to improve the experiences of separated fathers and their ability to support them. Full article

The valuation of the benefits to humans of ecosystem services (ESs) provided by nature has become increasingly important. A current challenge is the measurement of the range of benefits which are not traded in the marketplace and are generally considered intangible, with further challenges to even classify them formally, e.g., as cultural ecosystem services (CESs). Previous studies have emphasized a related challenge: the strong need for engagement of not just experts but ’ordinary people’. Approaches using participatory approaches and less formal communication pathways to draw out local CES values have been reported. However, critical reflections of those studies reported significant differences in understanding between ’outsider researchers’ and ’locals’, calling validity deeply into question. Even deliberative approaches backfired by significantly modifying local social constructs during elicitation. In this study, we demonstrate a fundamentally different kind of approach, developed from the bottom–up sustainability indicator development process called WeValue InSitu. It focuses not on improving deeper top–down ‘engagement’ of a specific topic, but instead on improving local articulation of existing envelopes of in situ human shared values, naturally integrated. The WeValue InSitu output is a framework of separate but interlinked concise Statements of local shared values. Some of these Statements may refer to values concerning ecosystems, but situated amongst others. Here, we analyze the outputs from 23 convenience groups in three sites in Nigeria and investigate the shared values found empirically against existing economics-based MEA classifications. The findings include hybrid values which span existing CES sub-categories and even across into market-based categories. This opens a discussion as to whether future ES valuation frameworks might evolve more usefully with foundations built on empirically derived typologies of human values, rather than bolt-on modifications to financially based economics concepts. It also raises questions about the validity of current valuations made which cannot capture empirically found human values. Full article

This research investigates the potential of computational argumentation, specifically the application of the Abstract Argumentation Framework (AAF), to enhance the evaluation of deliberative quality in public discourse. It focuses on integrating AAF and its related semantics with the Discourse Quality Index (DQI), which is a reputable indicator of deliberative quality. The motivation is to overcome the DQI’s constraints using the AAF’s formal and logical features by addressing dependency on hand coding and attention to specific speech acts. This is done by exploring how the AAF can identify conflicts among arguments and assess the acceptability of different viewpoints, potentially leading to a more automated and objective evaluation of deliberative quality. A pilot study is conducted on the topic of abortion to illustrate the proposed methodology. The findings of this research demonstrate that AAF methods can improve discourse analysis by automatically identifying strong arguments through conflict resolution strategies. They also emphasise the potential of the proposed procedure to mitigate the dependence on manual coding and improve deliberation processes. Full article

This paper discusses the use of IoT sensor networks and spatial data mining methods to support the design process in the revitalization of the university campus of the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) in the spirit of universal design. The aim of the research was to develop a methodology for the use of IoT and edge computing for the acquisition of spatial knowledge based on spatial big data, as well as for the development of an open (geo)information society that shares the responsibility for the process of shaping the spaces of smart cities. The purpose of the article is to verify the hypothesis on whether it is possible to obtain spatial–temporal quantitative data that are useful in the process of designing the space of a university campus using low-cost Internet of Things sensors, i.e., already existing networks of CCTV cameras supported by simple installed beam-crossing sensors. The methodological approach proposed in the article combines two main areas—the use of IT technologies (IoT, big data, spatial data mining) and data-driven design based on analysis of urban space actors’ behavior for participatory revitalization of a university campus. The research method applied involves placing a network of locally communicating heterogeneous IoT sensors in the space of a campus. These sensors collect data on the behavior of urban space actors: people and vehicles. The data collected and the knowledge gained from its analysis are used to discuss the shape of the campus space. The testbed of the developed methodology was the central campus of the WUT (Warsaw University of Technology), which made it possible to analyze the time-varying use of the selected campus spaces and to identify the premises for the revitalization project in accordance with contemporary trends in the design of the space of HEIs (higher education institutions), as well as the needs of the academic community and the residents of the capital. The results are used not only to optimize the process of redesigning the WUT campus, but also to support the process of discussion and activation of the community in the development of deliberative democracy and participatory shaping of space in general. Full article

Background: Natural nootropic compounds are evidenced to restore brain function in clinical and older populations and are purported to enhance cognitive abilities in healthy cohorts. This study aimed to provide neurocomputational insight into the discrepancies between the remarkable self-reports and growing interest in nootropics among healthy adults and the inconclusive performance-enhancing effects found in the literature. Methods: Towards this end, we devised a randomised, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled study where participants performed a visual categorisation task prior to and following 60 days of supplementation with a plant-based nootropic, while electroencephalographic (EEG) signals were concurrently captured. Results: We found that although no improvements in choice accuracy or reaction times were observed, the application of multivariate information-theoretic measures to the EEG source space showed broadband increases in similar and complementary interdependencies across brain networks of various spatial scales. These changes not only resulted in localised increases in the redundancy among brain network interactions but also more significant and widespread increases in synergy, especially within the delta frequency band. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that natural nootropics can improve overall brain network cohesion and energetic efficiency, computationally demonstrating the beneficial effects of natural nootropics on brain health. However, these effects could not be related to enhanced rapid perceptual decision-making performance in a healthy adult sample. Future research investigating these specific compounds as cognitive enhancers in healthy populations should focus on complex cognition in deliberative tasks (e.g., creativity, learning) and over longer supplementation durations. Clinical trials registration number: NCT06689644. Full article

This article examines the linguistic and political dimensions of deliberation at a transnational level, using the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) as a case study. The CoFoE, held from 2021 to 2022, involved European citizens deliberating in 24 official languages of the European Union. This multilingual setting provides insights into the challenges and opportunities of fostering a multilingual continental democracy. While the European Parliament’s translation services were largely effective, the study reveals how linguistic diversity can both enhance and impede deliberative processes. By comparing the CoFoE with other multilingual forums such as the European Social Forum and traditional European Parliament deliberations, this paper explores the implications of multilingualism on participatory mechanisms and democratic engagement in the EU. This research employs an ethnographic methodology grounded in non-participant observations conducted during Panel 2 of the Conference on the Future of Europe, focusing on field notes, video recordings, and a live interpretation to document the dynamics of deliberative exchanges. The approach aimed to capture the diversity of interactions in plenary sessions and smaller discussion groups. The findings highlight the complex interplay between language use, political representation, and social inclusion, and suggest that true multilingual deliberation requires more than just technical translation services; it demands a commitment to linguistic equity and the accommodation of diverse voices. Full article

This literature review critically examines the potential of collective intelligence (CI) to enhance theories of deliberative democracy and participatory governance through academic discourse. We employed PRISMA guidelines for systematic article selection, complemented by a narrative approach for in-depth thematic analysis and supplemented by quantitative methodologies such as Sankey diagrams and keyness analysis. Reviewing 61 scholarly articles focusing on CI within the public sector, this study identifies theoretical insights that could significantly impact the field of democratic innovations and participatory governance. Our analysis reveals that CI methodologies can make governance more inclusive and dynamic by integrating advanced digital tools that foster broader and more effective citizen participation. We conclude that integrating CI with deliberative democracy and participatory governance theories holds substantial promise for developing more responsive and adaptive governance models. Future research should focus on measuring deliberative quality in real time, deploying CI tools to empower underrepresented groups and address specific governance challenges, and examining CI’s ethical and social implications, especially concerning privacy, security, and power dynamics in technology-driven public decision-making. Full article