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)

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)

This article, available for sale at Cambridge Journals Online, is compromised of the text from a Presidential Address delivered before the APSA in Seattle, September 2011, by Carole Pateman of the University of California, Los Angeles and is based in part on her book, Participation and Democratic Theory.  Some of the ideas and arguments in this address were also presented in 2011 at the UK Political Studies Association meeting, in London, and at the Canadian Political Science Association meeting, in Waterloo. From the abstract: Over the past two decades we ... (continue)

This 2011 article by NCDD member Caroline W. Lee of Lafayette College was published in Volume 7 of the Journal of Public Deliberation. A free download of the article is available at http://services.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=jpd. Abstract: Academic research on public dialogue and deliberation is abundant and sophisticated. This body of multi-disciplinary scholarship draws on the insights of political theory and case studies, such that much is known about the promise and practical nuances of designing engagement processes with authentically deliberative outcomes. The socio-historical and institutional contexts in which public ... (continue)

This article (co-authored by NCDD member Ximena Zúñiga, Gretchen E. Lopez & Kristie A. Ford) appears in a special issue of the education journal Equity & Excellence in Education – co-edited by higher education faculty, program developers and practitioners – which includes research and practice examples from higher education, school, and community settings and focuses on intergroup dialogue as form of social justice education. All the articles cover program and social science studies from varied institutional and geographic locations, and capture experiences and reflections of facilitators, students, and diverse ... (continue)

This 2011 book, edited by Roger A. Lohmann and Jon Van Til, focuses on how public deliberation and group discussion can strengthen the foundations of civil society, even when the groups engaged in debate share a history of animosity. Scholars have begun to study the dialogue sustaining these conversations, especially its power to unite and divide groups and individuals. The twenty-four essays in this collection analyze public exchanges and the nature of sustained dialogue within the context of race relations, social justice, ethnic conflicts, public-safety ... (continue)

The Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University is a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary research center that advances both theory and practice in the fields of conflict and collaboration (see: http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/parcc.aspx). (continue)

The Center for Civil Discourse is organized around the central principle that open, fair and truthful debate, characterized by respect for opposing viewpoints is essential to a healthy democracy. The Center’s mission is to advance the values of respectful discourse and to call on Americans to embrace civility and reject demagoguery in government, media and our personal lives. Founded in 2011 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center is is affiliated with the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and ... (continue)

Check out the new DemocracyU website, the internet home to the American Commonwealth Partnership. The website highlights the inspiring work that engaged students are achieving at universities, colleges and communities across the country. The site will include students’ personal stories of off-campus activities as well as discussion and debate on the evolving role of university and college students in engaging in public work that benefits society. (continue)

The 28 page UNCG Guide to Collaborative Competencies is intended primarily for use by public officials and managers who are seeking to improve their own or their staff's collaborative competence through continuing education and training. (continue)