Involve (think tank)
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The Involve Foundation (known as Involve) is a UK based charity "working with governments, parliaments, civil society, academics and members of the public to create, advocate for and deliver new forms of public participation", like, for example, citizens' assemblies.[1][2]
Background
[edit]Involve is based in Bethnal Green in Central London. It was founded in 2004 by Richard Wilson to determine how new forms of public participation can strengthen democracy in Britain and elsewhere.[3]
Activities
[edit]Involve's vision is of a democracy where people are at the heart of decision-making.[4]
Involve has worked with a wide range of partners, most recently the Cabinet Office, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and NHS England. Past partners include the Home Office, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Ministry of Justice, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly, the OECD, the European Commission and the BBC.[5]
Governance
[edit]Involve's CEO is Sarah Castell and the Chair of Involve's Board of Trustees is Ed Cox.[6]
There has been some controversy in 2024 concerning the appointment of a trustee with links to Big Tobacco, Andrew Cave, since some of Involve's activities are in the health sector[7] and this is seen as a conflict of interest.[8] Cave was Head of Communications at Philip Morris International (PMI) from 2012 to 2022.[9][10] During this time, he was involved in their push to subvert the World Health Organization's global anti-smoking treaty.[11] After leaving PMI, he continued to work alongside other former PMI lobbyists at So What Communications.[12]
His LinkedIn profile states, "At Philip Morris International (PMI), I led regulatory communications across the UK and EU, advising senior leadership on PMI's unprecedented transformation to a smoke-free future." The term 'smoke-free' is misleading, however, as the report "Addiction at any cost: Philip Morris International Uncovered" by STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products) demonstrates: "Industry documents revealed that smoke-free products were seen as a way to create a new form of tobacco use among those no longer willing to take up smoking and “make new profits rather than cannibalise existing profits from cigarettes”."[13] This description of himself in his LinkedIn profile as a promoter of PMI's 'smoke-free' initiative could perhaps explain why the Involve leadership appointed him as a trustee, if they accepted it at face value without investigating further. Indeed, on his profile on the Involve Foundation website, Cave also claims misleadingly that while heading the communications division at PMI he was “directing many of its initiatives to move away from cigarettes.”[14] He failed to reveal, however, that this move was not simply away from cigarettes but towards vaping products, including ones aimed at children.[15]
At around the same time as he became trustee at Involve, Cave also became a director of another non-profit operating in the deliberative democracy field, the Sortition Foundation.[16] This constitutes a notable concentration of tobacco industry influence, since Involve and the Sortition Foundation are the two main providers of public participation services in the UK, and both have clients in the healthcare sector. It undermines trust in the outcome of deliberations on health policy organised by them, especially in view of recent moves by the UK government to strengthen anti-smoking regulations.[17]
The UK's Chief Medical Officer Prof. Chris Whitty, who called for politicians to push back against tobacco industry lobbying,[18][19] has been asked to stop the UK's National Health Service (NHS) from cooperating with Involve and the Sortition Foundation on public deliberation projects to counter any possible undue tobacco industry influence on their recommendations.
Key publications
[edit]- Room for a View: Democracy as a deliberative system, 2015
- Civic Activism Toolkit, 2015
- Public engagement, not just about the public, 2014
- Can you hear me? Citizens, Climate change & Open Local Government, 2014
- From Fairytale to Reality: Dispelling the myths around citizen engagement, 2013
- Pathways through Participation: What creates and sustains active citizenship?, 2011
- Talking for a Change: A distributed dialogue approach to complex issues, 2010[20]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "About Involve". The Involve Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-21.
- ^ "Citizens' assemblies: New ways to democratize democracy" (PDF). Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, September 2021. Retrieved 2024-12-21.
- ^ "About Involve | involve.org.uk". www.involve.org.uk. The Involve Foundation. 20 April 2018. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "Our vision". The Involve Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "Who we work with". The Involve Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "The Involve Foundation, People". Companies House. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "Our projects (Issue filter: Health and social care)". The Involve Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
- ^ "Involve is threatening me..." LinkedIn. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "Tobacco Tactics, Listing for Andrew Cave". Tobacco Control Research Group, University of Bath. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "Andrew Cave profile page". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "The Philip Morris Files, Part 1, Treaty Blitz: Inside Philip Morris' push to subvert the global anti-smoking treaty". Reuters Investigates. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
- ^ "Andrew Cave profile". So What Communications. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "ADDICTION AT ANY COST: Philip Morris International Uncovered, Chapter 3, Philip Morris International: Its Smoke-free Rhetoric Doesn't Reflect Its Behavior" (PDF). STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations & Products). Retrieved 2024-12-23.
- ^ "Andrew Cave profile". The Involve Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-25.
- ^ "Philip Morris International: money over morality?". The Lancet, 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2024-12-25.
- ^ "Andrew Cave profile page". Sortition Foundation. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "Tobacco and vapes bill". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "Protecting children, families and vulnerable from tobacco harms". UK Government, Department of Health and Social Care, Professor Chris Whitty, 2024-11-05. 5 November 2024. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ Gregory, Andrew; Quinn, Ben (16 April 2024). "Chris Whitty urges MPs to ignore lobbying and pass smoking ban". The Guardian. The Guardian, 2024-04-16. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "Involve – Publications". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-01.