The power of collaborative deliberation in stakeholder dialogue seminars

This paper quantifies the added value of using collaborative deliberation as an engagement element in a stakeholder dialogue seminar arranged over 3 days in Norway in 2015 with a wide range of national, regional and local stakeholders. The topic addressed was the possible impacts in western Norway from a hypothetical nuclear accident in the UK. The first day included information provision while the following 2 days were devoted to collaborative deliberation on the issue. Two questionnaire surveys were used to measure the degree of learning, networking, involvement and problem solving reported by the participants after the first day and the third day. The results from the surveys clearly suggest that collaborative deliberation gave an added value compared to information provision alone in our stakeholder dialogue seminar.