Her work examines democratic aspects of contemporary governance, including participation, deliberation, inclusion and representation. She has taught and published widely on the application and politics of inclusive and deliberative forms of citizen engagement. She has led numerous empirical projects in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands on the role of interests, power, networks, markets and elites in participatory modes of governing. Her recent research work is exploring alternative modes of political participation, particularly those enabled by online and offline spaces of political contestation (see below). Carolyn is an appointed member of newDemocracy Foundation’s Research Committee and sits on the editorial board of several international journals, including the European Journal of Political Research.