Professor Dr. John Parkinson

Biography

John Parkinson is a full professor in Social and Political Philosophy at Maastricht University, within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He is recognized as an applied democracy theorist, focusing on the connections between formal law, policy-making, and the broader public sphere. His work crosses several disciplines, including social political philosophy, cultural studies, political sociology, and public policy. He is one of the originators of the deliberative systems approach to democratic theory, examining the symbolic, discursive, and performative dimensions of political action. Parkinson's published works include 'Deliberating Real World' (Oxford University Press, 2006), 'Deliberative Systems' co-authored with Jane Mansbridge (Cambridge, 2012), 'Democracy Public Space' (Oxford, 2012), and 'Mapping Measuring Deliberation' with André Bächtiger (Oxford, 2019). His current research, funded by the Australian Research Council (DP160102598), employs electronic methods to compare the degree to which democratic societies share issues, perspectives, and arguments in the public sphere, culminating in a forthcoming book with OUP titled 'Deliberative Systems Action' with Núria Franco-Guillén. Additionally, he holds an adjunct professorship at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra, Australia, and is an Honorary Member of the Participatory Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group in the UK Political Studies Association, as well as a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Research Interests

Experience