Isabella Roberts on embodied democracy, music festival research & shared identity via deliberation
Ep. 63

Isabella Roberts on embodied democracy, music festival research & shared identity via deliberation

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Episode description

Isabella Roberts discusses her move from finance and electoral politics into research on deliberative democracy, AI and immersive technology. She explains her BoomTown Festival experiment using surveys and biosensors during mini citizens’ assemblies, including an early finding of increased shared identity among participants. The conversation also examines human-centred principles for digital deliberation and how technology might support participation without displacing reflection, listening and human connection.

Isabella links LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabellaroberts Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/b_lla Substack - https://breathewithbella.substack.com/ ANTIPARTY - https://antiparty.co.uk/ ANTIPARTY Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@antipartyuk DelibTech & SAAFE - https://delibtech.com/

0:00From finance to deliberative democracy
2:44The Boomtown citizens’ assembly experiment
5:54Measuring shared identity and resonance
17:08Designing better citizens’ assemblies
22:45DelibTech: Human-centered SAAFE
26:56Collaboration across civic-tech tools
29:56ANTIPARTY and political alternatives
35:14Giving non-humans a voice
39:15What democracy means
42:42Systems change starts from within
47:20Gender in politics and technology
55:10Final message: return to the body