Professor Oliver Escobar is the Chair of Public Policy and Democratic Innovation at the University of Edinburgh. He works on public participation, policy innovation, technology, the commons, and the governance of the future.
Oliver combines research and practice to develop social and democratic innovations across various policy and community contexts, in Scotland and internationally. He was Academic Lead on Democratic Innovation at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (2019-2023), and co-led the projects European Smart Urban Intermediaries (2017-2020), Distant Voices (2017-2020), and What Works Scotland (2014-2019). He currently co-leads on public engagement at Behavioural Research UK (2023-2028) and on political economy at the EU Horizon project INSPIRE – Intersectional Spaces of Participation (2024-2027).
Oliver’s work has been shared in ninety publications and fifty courses for students and practitioners across the public and third sectors. He authored Public Dialogue and Deliberation (2011) and co-edited the Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance (2019) and Climate Assemblies: New Civic Institutions for a Climate-Changed World. His research influence was acknowledged in Apolitical’s global list of the 100 Most Influential Academics in Government. Before academia, he worked in retail, fishing, construction, radio and literature.