I wonder if we can bring people that are politically polarised together to talk to each other and find common solutions to problems?

Speaker(s):

Rosario Aguilar, Newcastle Universtiy

Abstract:

Potential interventions to bring people together in non-competitive setting to talk to each other and work with each other to come up with solutions to local problems that are affecting them and other communities. For example, deterioration in social services, increasing grocery prices, increasing prices for leisure, etc. The idea is also to have them talking about what they expect from their government and what principles should the government and politicians follow when governing. In other words, have people think and discuss on their expectations towards the government, parties and politicians and ways to keep them accountable. Thus, it would be a two-tiered intervention to bring them together, identify the problems they face even if they don’t agree in politics, work together and deliverer on their expectations and how to keep politicians and government accountable.