Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding. His starting point is moral intuition—the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are ... (continue)

The Civil Debate Wall—popularly known as ‘The Wall’—is a unique, innovative social media tool created by Local Projects for The Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida and funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation. The Wall creates constructive dialogue by providing a physical social media tool that connects large touch screens, a texting system, and a website. These three synchronized components create a single, seamless interactive experience for the broader University of Florida community to actively engage in local, ... (continue)

The Kettering Foundation’s soon-to-be-released book, Democratizing Deliberation: A Political Theory Anthology, brings together recent and cutting-edge political theory scholarship on deliberative democracy. Edited by Derek Barker, Noelle McAfee, and David McIvor, the collection reframes deliberative democracy to be sensitive to the deep conflicts, multiple forms of communication, and aspirations for civic agency that characterize real public deliberation. In so doing, the book addresses many of the most common challenges to the theory and practice of deliberative democracy. Here’s what NCDD member Katherine Cramer Walsh (University of Wisconsin-Madison) says about the ... (continue)

Jacob Z. Hess is a Mormon, a community psychologist, and a devoted conservative, while Phil Neisser is an atheist, a leftist, and a college professor. Yet in 2009, after meeting at an NCDD conference, they embarked on a two-year conversation about the issues that divide them. The result is “You’re not as Crazy as I Thought,” an entertaining dialogue about power, government, media, religion, morality, gender roles, sexual orientation, race, and more. Drawing on the latest debates in social and political theory, Hess and Neisser ... (continue)

On January 21, 2012 the City of Bell convened a historic bi-lingual Community Forum that brought more than forty residents together to deliberate and to offer guidance to local officials on goals and budget priorities for the 2012-13 fiscal year. This process is one of several initiatives of the new Bell City Council to restore transparent, community-focused government to Bell. Following a welcome from Mayor Ali Saleh, and short presentations on the purpose of the forum and the overview of the City’s fiscal condition, small ... (continue)

New Hampshire Listens works at the local and state level to facilitate and support civil, public deliberation of complex, polarizing issues. We share resources on dialogue design, train facilitators, and work with local and state leaders to create opportunities for informed conversation on social, economic, and policy matters. We bring people together for engaged conversations and informed community solutions. Public dialogue opportunities augment formal, traditional means of engaging citizens by creating venues and resources for face-to-face and on-line deliberation. Our vision is to create a ... (continue)

The Institute for Local Government offers the following general tips to help guide effective public engagement relating to public safety realignment as part of the 2012 Institute for Local Government Public Engagement Program. Here’s an excerpt, on “clarifying goals” when approaching public engagement: 1. Clarify Your Public Engagement Goals. Determine the intended goal(s) of your public engagement meetings or other activities. Do you want to inform the public about public safety realignment, its requirements and its impacts, answer questions, and/or ask residents or others to ... (continue)

Engagement Commons, currently in beta, is a collaborative, dynamic, and accessible resource that both catalogs technology for civic engagement and highlights stories of real-world success. City officials and civic leaders can leverage the platform to identify, evaluate, and deploy the right apps to engage their communities. Engagement Commons is a project of Code for America and the Knight Foundation. Engagement Commons is a wiki-based, community-built resource. Contribute by adding an app or organization entry, or sharing an engagement-related story. Engagement Commons is part of the ... (continue)

Written and self-published by Sami Sunchild of the Peaceful World Foundation in 2008 and 2011, this is a short, readable, simple and lively manual for holding meaningful circle conversations in public places where traveler’s gather. The impetus for the manual comes from the idea of turning the tourist industry into a conscious vehicle of social transformation by systematically inviting people to host conversations in tourist centers. The booklet, which can be purchased on the Peace Arts website, includes “Six Ingredients of a Good Conversation” which focuses ... (continue)

Bereavement Support Groups: Breathing Life into Stories of the Dead is a must-read for therapists, grief counselors, facilitators, and anyone who has lost a loved one. This book fills the gap between the challenges to conventional grief psychology and the practice of bereavement counseling. The deceased person has often been left behind in counseling conversations, requiring the bereaved to distance themselves from honoring memories that could soothe their heartache. Ironically, the stories about the dead person have not featured prominently in the grief experience. The ... (continue)