Elke Loeffler, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation at Strathclyde Business School, has been a member of the independent Commission on Democracy and Civic Participation set up by Newham Council to provide recommendations for innovative democratic reforms to enable the Borough to ‘build back better’ from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key recommendations have included the creation of a permanent Citizens’ Assembly (selected from local people like a jury), increased participatory budgeting and development of community co-production in regeneration programmes.
The Democracy Commission Report was launched during a virtual public event on July 6. Elke has also contributed a blog “Better Services and Outcomes through Citizen Co-Production” for the Commission’s webpage. This blog as well as other research produced by the Commission will be made available to Strathclyde Business School students as part of online teaching programmes in the new semester.