Framing and power in public deliberation with climate change: Critical reflections on the role of deliberative practitioners

Drawing on the experiences of a deliberative practitioner and critical social scientist involved in the planning, production and implementation of a deliberative initiative on climate change, this paper reflects on nuances of framing and power in practical settings. Decisions about framing, some of them more conscious than others, influence the process of opinion formation among participants as well as the outcomes of the deliberation. Framing enacts power through the selection of deliberative approaches, the viewpoints that are admitted into the procedure, the alternatives that are defined, as well as the solutions that are ultimately proposed. Grounded in reflexivity as a methodological approach, the goal of this analysis is to make the democratization of public responses to climate change more reflexive and open to transformative learning at individual and institutional levels.