Three resources to help you get a sense of the kinds of legislation that can and do support citizen engagement in governance and decision-making, an NCDD listserv compilation, an amazing article by Lisa Bingham, and a 2003 global compilation by LogoLink. (continue)

Written by NCDD director Sandy Heierbacher to expand upon the text on our “What Are Dialogue & Deliberation?” page. This resource provides enough details to enable you to decide which of these leading dialogue and deliberation methods you should learn more about. In addition to looking at which methods fit your intentions, you will need to consider which methods are aligned with your resources, timeline, and the people you feel need to be involved. The text below is drawn from NCDD’s Engagement Streams Framework. AmericaSpeaks ... (continue)

The State Government in Western Australia has portrayed itself as a champion of revitalising local democracy and civic engagement. This can be seen in the plethora of community consultation/participation policy documents that have emerged from the Premier's Citizens and Civics Unit over the past five years. Dialogue with the City, a major participatory planning process that formed part of the development of a new strategic plan—Network City—for metropolitan Perth, has been heralded as an exemplar of deliberative democracy. This paper draws on deliberative democratic theory, performative policy analysis and institutional discourse analysis to interrogate the efficacy of this claim by examining the discursive practices leading up to and including the Community Forum, a major consultative and participatory event of the Dialogue Initiative. (continue)

Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) released its 8-page white paper “An Evolving Relationship: Executive Branch Approaches to Civic Engagement and Philanthropy” in May 2010. This white paper is based on a briefing memo prepared for a White House meeting earlier in 2010 between leaders of the philanthropic community and Executive Branch officials. The meeting focused on the topics of service, civic engagement, social innovation and public participation and where there might be shared interests between the two groups. (continue)

When it comes to online activities such as contributing money, contacting a government official or signing an online petition, the wealthy and well-educated continue to lead the way. Still, there are hints that the new forms of civic engagement anchored in blogs and social networking sites could alter long-standing patterns. The Internet and Civic Engagement by Aaron Smith, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba, Henry Brady, was published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in September 2009. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/15–The-Internet-and-Civic-Engagement.aspx Publication description: Political and civic involvement ... (continue)

The July 2007 report by Barnett Pearce, Ph.D. (pictured), Reclaiming Democracy: Changing the Way We Talk about Critical Issues, has the subtitle “A Report of a Project to Engage Legislators in Dialogue and Suggestions for Moving Forward.” This report to the Kettering Foundation describes and reflects on a project done by a few members of the dialogue and deliberation community which resulted in a meeting on May 30, 2007, called “Reclaiming Democracy: Changing the Way We Talk about Critical Issues.” Download the report here. Here ... (continue)

New Social Inquiry is an academic journal that publishes social research essays and relative works that are accessible to a wide audience, engaging and relevant for non-specialists, yet sophisticated and complex enough to push scholarship forward. Their first publication will focus on public dialogue. Here’s an excerpt from the guidelines for submission: Is there such a thing as public dialogue, now or in the past? If so, who participates, who leads, and what forms does it take? If not, how can it realistically be realized? ... (continue)

Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) released a report in 2009 called “The New Laboratories of Democracy:  How Local Government is Reinventing Civic Engagement” authored by Mike McGrath from the National Civic League. It can be downloaded from the PACE website at http://pacefunders.org/publications/NewLaboratoriesofDemocracy.pdf. The PACE report details the innovative methods local governments around the country are using to increase civic engagement by the public. “Local governments are at the cutting edge of finding new tools and methods to increase civic engagement in this country. We ... (continue)

The following people helped gather this fabulous list of inspiring quotes: Judith Mowry, Diane Bock, Patrick Brown, Wal Cusworth, Rogier Gregoire, Sandy Heierbacher, DeAnna Martin, Susan Partnow, Harris Sokoloff, Dick Spady and Libby and Len Traubman. Have a suggestion for an addition to this list? Add a comment below. Categories… Dialogue Deliberation Listening Communication Knowledge, Truth & Exploration Conflict & Transforming Conflict Inclusion Democracy Action & Change Other Good Ones (continue)

Created by NCDD director Sandy Heierbacher in collaboration with Martin Carcasson, Will Friedman and Alison Kadlec (and based on Carcasson's paper Beginning With the End in Mind), the Goals of Dialogue & Deliberation graphic pictured here outlines 3 types of goals for public problem-solving work. In a nutshell, the three tiers of goals are individual and knowledge-based goals, immediate group/community outcomes, and longer-term capacity building and community change. Click on the image to view a larger version of the graphic. (continue)