Citizens’ juries – some reflections on the method

Abstract

This article discusses the method of citizens’ jury and consists of three main parts. In the first one presents the method, its phases of research focusing on the selections of: participantsjurors, witnesses, facilitators and conducting deliberation. The second part describes the research project – Prajateerpu – which was organized in India and concerned the development of the agricultural area in this country. This project particular feature, which was often emphasized in the papers on citizens’ jury, was inviting poor, uneducated farmers living in a state to the discussion of the complicated, technical issues (connected with changing the employment structure, using GMO seeds, controlling medical plants cultivation). The third part is about the possibility of using this type of research in different countries or cultural systems, that is collecting widely understood problem – acculturation of the method citizens’ jury. An opportunity of applying this method of research in Poland is carefully considerate, where the judiciary, the way of negotiation of the common ground and taking decisions are completely different than the ones which are appropriate for researchers using citizens’ juries.