Dunfermline was granted the status of city as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022. This historical milestone opens up opportunities for Dunfermline to reflect on its past, strengthen its community in the present and lay the foundations for a brighter future.
The Electoral Reform Society, Fife Council and the Scottish Government are working with the local community to devise the plans for the city’s future through a mini-public, the New City Assembly. The participants, selected by sortition, will learn together, deliberate and make suggestions to the council for how Dunfermline should evolve in this new era of its history.
In this report, the Education, Youth and Civic Engagement (EYCE) Hub presents the ecological evaluation of Dunfermline’s New City Assembly. It is the first phase of a three-pronged evaluation that also includes an ongoing formative evaluation and a future summative evaluation.
The ecological evaluation situates the Assembly within Dunfermline’s civic and institutional landscape. This includes an analysis of its fit with the local ecology of participation, the theories underlying its design, the democratic capabilities built by the process, and stakeholder perspectives on its legitimacy and sustainability.