Episode 11 Facilitator training with Oliver Escobar

Facilitating Public Deliberations

Dr Oliver Escobar is an academic at the University of Edinburgh and has offered training in facilitation for public deliberations for more than a decade. It is this training that provides the focus of the podcast conversation.

Oliver is unusual because of this combination of scholarship and being an experienced trainer. In this interview, he explains the background and theory behind the training program, as well as the people who offer themselves for learning and considerable detail about the training itself. Oliver and his team are growing the field of skilled UK facilitators in very impressive ways.

Oliver has written a monograph Public Dialogue and Deliberation: A communication perspective for public engagement practitioners

Oliver also works with

What Works Scotland

Beltane Public Engagement Network

Edinburgh Futures Institute

Oliver and Stephen Elstub wrote the Research Note ‘Forms of Mini-publics…’

You can find out more about the book Oliver and Stephen edited, the Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance, as well as read two open-access chapters.

Music acknowledgement.