Method: Digital Protest
Aug 22 '18
This entry will document repertoires of action taken in online spaces.
Digital Protest
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Monthly Archives: August 2018
civics in the very early grades
I’m far from an expert on civics for young children, but I bump into the subject in various capacities–as an author of the College Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies, which covers grades k-12; as an evaluator of a pilot civics program in Ukraine, which includes a first-grade curriculum; as a proud board member of Discovering Justice, which focuses more than other nonprofits do on the early grades; and as the director of CIRCLE when we commissioned “Indicators and Measures of Civic Outcomes for Elementary School Students” by Bernadette Chi, JoAnn Jastrzab, and Alan Melchior.
If I’m asked what little kids should learn about civics, this is my working answer. Mostly, they should learn how to relate appropriately to other people: sharing resources fairly, taking turns, resolving conflicts peacefully, and addressing common problems. They should also begin to see that the same issues arise at larger scales and for adults in formal roles. Just as they should they help a classmate who’s crying on the playground, so “neighborhood helpers” like firefighters should help citizens in need. Just as they should resolve disputes with words, so should national leaders. Just as their classroom has rules, so does the society. At some point in the early grades, they should begin to realize that just as kids may fail to treat each other right, so may adults who hold official roles; and when that happens, it requires remedies. These analogies should be represented in the materials, such as historical narratives, that children read and otherwise study academically.
I don’t think we know whether experiencing high-quality civics at age 7 matters at age 17 (or 70). You might expect that it only matters if the experience is reinforced in between, but that’s an empirical question. In 1999, Sir Bernard Crick observed that, “there is no political Piaget,” and longitudinal research on civic development before adolescence is sorely lacking. Thus I base my advice on accumulated classroom experience and theory, not on statistical data.
Jefferson Center to Bring Citizens Jury to Athens Forum
The Jefferson Center – an NCDD member org and sponsor, just announced they have partnered with The New York Times to bring the Citizen Jury method to the annual New York Times Athens Democracy Forum this September in Greece. In this exciting announcement written by Annie Pottorff, the Forum will convene folks from around the world on the theme of ”Democracy in Danger: Solutions for a Changing World”, which will stem concrete action steps. There is a 20% registration discount available in the post below and many more ways to be involved in this upcoming event. You can read the announcement below and find the original on Jefferson Center’s site here.
We’re Bringing the Citizens Jury to Athens
We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with the New York Times for the annual New York Times Athens Democracy Forum! As an official Knowledge Partner, we’ve been collaborating with New York Times team to bring our Citizens Jury method of deliberation to Athens in September.
At this year’s conference, themed ”Democracy in Danger: Solutions for a Changing World,” senior journalists, international business leaders, and experts from around the world will collaborate to identify concrete actions governments, businesses, and citizens can take to preserve a free society.
We’ll moderate a key breakout session, where attendees will sit down with members of the NYT editorial board and columnists to explore big issues in modern democracy, and the media’s role in addressing those issues, including…
- The rule of law
- The changing role of technology in politics
- Identity, diversity, and inclusion
- Corporate responsibility in democracy
Participant ideas will form the foundation of the “Talk with the Times” interactive session on the second day of the conference, where New York Times journalists and editors will discuss the group’s recommendations and explore solutions for strengthening democracy. The ideas emerging from these discussions will also be used to shape the post-event summary report and coverage recapping the event.
Expert speakers include…
- Ouided Bouchamaoui, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2015
- Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General, Council of Europe
- Kishore Mahbubani, Former President, UN Security Council
- Annika Savill, Executive Head, UNDEF: The United Nations Democracy Fund
- Ai Weiwei, Artist
- Thulisile Nomkhosi Madonsela, Law Trust Chair in Social Justice, Stellenbosch University
- Yashka Mounk, Author
- Eva Kaili, Member of the European Parliament
Want to participate in the conversation? Join me in Athens!
Sign up today with discount code ADF18JC for a 20% discount exclusively for the Jefferson Center’s network.
If you can’t make it to Greece, don’t worry–there are a lot of other ways you can get involved. Watch for our upcoming series of blog posts exploring how our work and theme of the forum intersect, follow the #NYTADF hashtag, and join in our online discussions over the next few weeks.
We know that the ideas and actions of individuals around the world can improve how communities and governments of all sizes interact and function. We’re excited to hear your ideas and hope you will join us as we work on solutions together.
You can find the original version on this announcement on The Jefferson Center’s site at www.jefferson-center.org/citizens-jury-to-athens/.
Announcing Dr. Tina Heafner as the Keynote Speaker for the 61st Annual Florida Council for the Social Studies Conference!
Good afternoon, friends in social studies. On behalf of the Florida Council for the Social Studies, I would like to invite you to join us at our annual conference from October 19, 2018 at noon to October 21, 2018 at 1:00 PM. The conference will be held at the Florida Hotel and Conference Center on Sand Lake Road in Orlando, and it will be an excellent event. We have a number of very good sessions planned (and will release the program soon), but more importantly, we are excited to announce our Saturday keynote speaker, Dr. Tina Heafner!
Dr. Heafner is an incredible advocate for the social studies and for educators, a leading expert on inquiry in the social studies, and the current vice-president of our national council. We are incredible excited that she will be speaking with our teachers and education leaders at the conference! We will share an overview of her keynote when that is available in the next couple of weeks.
We hope to see you at the conference. For more information and to register, check out the FCSS website!
empathy, sympathy, compassion, justice
I’d posit the following definitions:
- Empathy: Feeling a similar emotion in response to someone else’s emotional state. Your friend is mad at her boss because he treated her unfairly. That makes you mad at her boss. Your anger is probably different in texture and intensity from hers, but it’s the same in kind, an imperfect reproduction of her mental state.
- Sympathy: Feeling a supportive emotion in response to someone else’s emotional state that is not the same as that person’s original emotion. She is mad at her boss, so you become sorry for her, or committed to fairness, or sad about the state of the world, or nostalgic for better times–but not angry at her boss. Then you are sympathetic. (NB You can be both sympathetic and empathetic if you feel several emotions.)
- Compassion: A species of the genus sympathy. Another person’s negative emotion causes you to have a specific supportive feeling that is not the same as her emotion: you sincerely wish that her distress would end without blaming her for it.
- Justice: A situation or decision characterized by fairness, goodness, rightness, etc. (These are contestable ideas and may be in tension with each other.) The English word “just”–like dikaios in classical Greek–can be applied either to a situation or to a person who cares and aims for justice.
There is an old and rich debate about which character traits and subjective states are best suited to pursuing justice. One answer is that you should be a just person, one who tries to decide what is fair or best for all (all things considered), who desires that outcome, and who works to pursue it. A different response is that we are not well suited to defining and pursuing justice itself. It’s better to cultivate other emotions, such as empathy, sympathy, compassion–or loyalty, aversion to harm, or commitment to specific rules–in order to deliver more just outcomes, all things considered.
I haven’t yet read Paul Bloom’s new book, Against Empathy, but based on this interview and other secondary material, I take it to be an empirically-based contribution to this debate. Bloom marshals evidence that empathy is a highly unreliable guide to justice, probably more likely to mislead than to inform. We should cultivate justice itself, not settle for a substitute, and certainly not the poor substitute of empathy.
For instance, Donald Trump can make people feel empathy for a small number of individuals whose families were allegedly victimized by undocumented aliens, and then use that emotion to build support for deporting millions of people who have harmed no one. A famous example is Edmund Burke’s outrage at the mistreatment of Marie Antoinette, which obscured any concern for the countless people tortured, executed, or “disappeared” by the ancien regime that she represented. (By the way, I happen to respect Burke a lot–and I don’t think it was fair or smart to execute the Queen–but this passage is still a good example of misplaced empathy.)
Empathy can also substitute for justice, as I argued on a visit to Israel in 2013. You congratulate yourself for feeling some version of a suffering person’s emotion and excuse yourself from fixing the problem.
Compassion may be better than empathy. Instead of feeling the same emotion as the other person, you feel a combination of beneficence and equanimity that may be a more reliable guide to acting well. But it’s possible that compassion only clears the deck for reasoning about what you should actually do.
For its part, justice can be emotional. You can feel a powerful urge to make the world more just. That is helpful insofar as the feeling motivates you and insofar as people obtain genuine insights from our emotions; but it is dangerous because the emotion of desiring justice can be misplaced. You can feel great about improving the world when you are actually harming it.
Justice is also necessarily discursive. You must put into words–at least inside your own head–what is good or fair, and why, and make yourself accountable for that position. Therefore, much hinges on whether we human beings can reason explicitly about justice in ways that improve upon our strictly affective reactions to particular situations.
See also: empathy: good or bad?; the limits of putting yourself in their shoes and looking with their eyes; an alternative to Moral Foundations Theory; structured moral pluralism (a proposal); and how to save the Enlightenment Ideal.
IAP2 Seeks Input for National Dialogue Effort on P2
The International Association for Public Participation launched their 2018 IAP2 USA National Dialogue at the Skills Symposium in Austin, Texas, earlier this year on engaging the public in highly technical and complex projects. They are seeking input on how public participation (P2) is currently being used on these complex engagement efforts and what are some techniques for better engaging the public in the future. Learn more about what they have found so far and check out the toolkit IAP2 created for organizing an event in your community. They are looking to compile the responses for this and share it at the upcoming 2019 Skills Symposium next year. You can read some of the highlights below and find even more information on the IAP2 site here.
2018 IAP2 USA National Dialogue
How and Why the Public Should be Engaged in Highly Technical and Complex Projects
At a time when highly technical and complex projects such as natural gas pipelines, electricity transmission projects and multimodal transportation developments are on the rise, more stakeholder groups are clamoring for a greater role in planning, problem-solving and decision-making. In the 2018 IAP2 USA National Dialogue, we hope to learn what P2 practitioners and other community engagement professionals say about the P2 practices currently being used in these projects and how the public can be engaged more successfully in the future.
IAP2 USA kicked off its 2018 National Dialogue in Austin, Texas, this past February. Over the coming year, we want to learn how the revived spirit of “localism” in large and small communities across the country is impacting decision-making where we live and work. What ideas and suggestions can P2 practitioners and others make to better understand and respond to the growing tension among individual stakeholders, advocacy groups and project managers?
Get the conversation started in your area!
To help IAP2 USA chapters, member organizations and others hold national dialogue discussion in your community, IAP2 USA has created a toolkit to make it easy. Everything you need to plan and organize an event is right here at your disposal, including thought-provoking conversation starters such as a YouTube video documenting a real-life project and an online survey about how project managers engage the public. The ideas generated during these discussions will be collected and shared across IAP2 USA’s network of over 2,000 members and friends, as well as wrap-up discussion at the 2019 Skills Symposium in Austin, Texas. We also plan to share the practitioner knowledge and expertise with our government regulators and IAP2 affiliates around the globe.
At-a-glance: 2018 National Dialogue Kick-off Summary
The 2018 National Dialogue began at the Skills Symposium in Austin, Texas, with an introduction by IAP2 USA President Leah Jaramillo and emerging Lone Star Chapter representative Tina Geiselbrecht. Event sponsor and Outreach Experts CEO Jay Vincent then opened the discussion on the role of the public in highly technical, complex projects. Sharing his experience in the energy industry, Vincent highlighted the growing tension between the regulatory agencies responsible for approving energy development projects and the public.
Using card storming and focused conversations, participants were led through a series of tabletop exercises on the following questions:
- What are the barriers to engaging the public in highly technical and/or complex projects?
- Why are regulators/project sponsors/clients/internal staff afraid (fear) of engaging the public in highly technical and/or complex projects?
Table reps posted each group’s tops ideas to a sticky wall and grouped the responses into subthemes. After reviewing the subthemes group members returned to their tables for a focused conversation on two follow up discussion questions.
- DQ1: Discussion How might we overcome these challenges?
- DQ2: What might IAP2 USA do to help? (have a volunteer take notes on the flip chart
Major Themes
- Diversity of agency processes
- Inability to understand community interests
- Lack of understanding
- Diversity of stakeholders
- Lack of clarity around expectations
- Time (whose frame of reference is relevant to setting time boundaries)
- Preparing technical challenges
- Managing technical information
- Managing resources
Before closing, some participants completed a short survey on the role of state and federal regulatory agencies in project permitting processes. The results begin to help us understand what experts think of the overall effectiveness of the three levels of government in relation to IAP2 Core Values and how these entities interact with the public in relation to the P2 spectrum. A civic engagement and demographic battery provided insight on the civic and community engagement practices of participating P2 professionals.
Now it’s your turn to host a National Dialogue discussion in your community. The carefully planned toolkit will make event planning quick and easy.
You can find the original version on this announcement on the International Association for Public Participation at www.iap2usa.org/2018nationaldialogue.
Round Three of NCDD2018 Workshop Now Available!
In case you missed it, we have been announcing workshops for the upcoming 2018 National Conference for Dialogue & Deliberation over the last few weeks! This is round three of workshops and you can check out the line-up of sessions we’ve announced so far on the main conference page (and this is just half..we have 30 more to announce!). NCDD2018 will be from Friday, November 2nd to Sunday, November 4th in downtown Denver, but we encourage folks to get an early start on the NCDD fun with the pre-conference sessions happening on Thursday, November 1st (read more here). If you are looking to split the cost on a hotel room, we’ve created a space on the blog to coordinate room shares. Finally, we invite folks to contribute to the Scholarship Fund Drive we recently launched and support a student or fellow NCDDer to attend the conference who would otherwise be unable to do so!
NCDD2018 Workshop Sessions
We will continue to announce workshop sessions over the coming weeks to follow!
Participatory Systems Change – Engagement for Big Impact
Addressing many of today’s societal, economic and environmental problems requires a systems lens that takes into account the values of citizens and stakeholders, identifies leverage points for intervention, and builds collaboration among multiple actors. Through hands-on activities, participants will explore how dialogue-based engagement and systems approaches can be connected to create Participatory Systems Change, by rethinking key aspects of engagement, i.e.: ownership; issue framing; sequencing; the nature of democratic exchange; the method of analysis; and communications strategies.
Robin Prest
Program Director, Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
Martín Carcasson
Director, CSU Center for Public Deliberation
Board Member, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation
Libraries Transforming Communities: Working with Your Local Library to Bridge Divides
Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC): Models for Change (www.ala.org/ltc) was a two-year initiative of the American Library Association and the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation that sought to strengthen communities by giving libraries the tools they need to bring disparate voices together and lead change. In this session, ALA and NCDD will share the experience of training librarians to lead dialogues in their communities, including opportunities and lessons learned from the project. Participants in this session will discuss ideas for continuing this work, collaborating with their local library and building a community of practice for facilitators and library practitioners. (Intermediate)
Mary Davis Fournier
Deputy Director, American Library Association, Public Programs Office
Courtney Breese
Managing Director, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation
Samantha Oakley
Program Officer, American Library Association, Public Programs Office
Facilitating Deliberation Online – Reflections and Advice on Tools and Practice
This session will bring together platform designers, consultants, and practitioners from the world of online deliberation for a survey of currently used tools and best practices. Panelists provide a range of experiences from research to nonprofit boards to citizen participation. We will provide a brief overview of research in online deliberation over the past 20 years, and discuss findings of the ParticipateDB 2018 Digital Engagement Census. Tool designers and online deliberation facilitators will share reflections and advice applied to different deliberative contexts.
Todd Davies
Associate Director and Lecturer, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University
Tim Bonneman
Interim Director, Center for Applied Community Engagement (CACE)
Flavors of Free Speech on Campus
Campuses across the country are grappling with the tensions between two core values: free speech, as protected by the first amendment, and inclusion of diverse people in the campus community. Explore the boundaries of free expression and inclusion by asking questions such as: Should universities try to establish “safe spaces”? Are provocative speakers allowed to speak on public campuses? Is dialogue a realistic option to address some of these free speech challenges? Come discuss these questions and raise your own in an interactive discussion with representatives from Rutgers and UC Davis.
Carolyn Penny
Director, Campus Dialogue & Deliberation, University of California – Davis
Nancy Kranich
Lecturer, Rutgers University School of Communication and Information
Confronting the White Supremacy Culture of D&D
This session will pose the question: how does the field of D & D encounter the culture of white supremacy? Using a combination of individual reflection, small group, and whole group discussion, participants will be asked to reflect on questions about how white supremacy manifests itself within the thinking and practices of dialogue and deliberation as well as how D&D has confronted the challenges of white supremacy.
Frank Dukes, PhD
Distinguished Institute Fellow, Institute for Environmental Negotiation
Tanya Denckla Cobb
Director, Institute for Environmental Negotiation
Selena Cozart, PhD
Community Facilitator, Institute for Environmental Negotiation
Bridging Divides through Dialogue and Digital Narratives
We all know how digital media too often distracts/detracts from constructive dialogue. How can digital narrative production be used instead to promote individual self-awareness, empowerment of underrepresented voices, and dialogue across difference? This workshop highlights a multi-step, dialogic process for just that, as utilized by the national Story Center in recent collaborations with groups at the University of Colorado. Students and staff together will share sample narratives and lead participants in exercises and discussion around lessons learned and methods for productive dialogue.
Ashmi Desai
Postdoctoral Associate, University of Colorado – Boulder
Jim Walker
Norlin Teaching Faculty, University of Colorado – Boulder
Daniel Weinshenker
Director, Midwest Region, Story Center
People’s Movement Assembly for Envisioning an Inclusive Democracy Movement
Democracy begins at the community level, and it requires intentionality to create inclusive spaces that bring together as many voices to the conversation. Since 2010, Move to Amend has facilitated Peoples’ Movement Assemblies as a mechanism to promote democratic dialogue and deliberative problem solving for democratizing the US Constitution. PMAs will help participants to develop a shared analysis of the current crises we face, create a shared vision of the world we want to build, and collaborate strategically across social movements and fronts of struggle towards coordinated action.
Keyan Bliss
Grassroots Volunteer Coordinator, Move to Amend
Jessica Munger
Program Director, Move to Amend
Designing Community Deliberation in College Courses
The design of public deliberation and dialogue varies depending on community needs, goals, context, and audience. Presenters will provide deliberative pedagogy models and syllabi for involving students in research, design, facilitation, assessment, and reporting of different community dialogues and deliberations. Through examples of integrating deliberation into college curricula and the accompanying student learning outcomes and community results, participants will develop strategies for bringing college curricula and deliberation theory into effective, sustainable community-based practice.
Leila R. Brammer
Professor/Chair/Co-Director, Public Deliberation and Dialogue, Gustavus Adolphus College
Pamela Conners
Associate Professor/Co-Director, Public Deliberation and Dialogue, Gustavus Adolphus College
Brandon Anderson
Visiting Assistant Professor, Gustavus Adolphus College
Addressing Coercive Power in Dialogue and Deliberation
Facilitators may encounter interactions that leave a dialogue participant feeling uncomfortable, silenced, or even feeling their identity is threatened. We call these interactions instances of coercive power. This workshop raises awareness about instances of coercive power in dialogue settings and provides a chance to workshop responses to two cases of coercive interactions. We conclude by sharing the facilitator’s actual responses and analyzing effects of their intervention. You will develop a nuanced understanding of coercive power and build a deeper repertoire of ways to respond.
Roudy Hildreth
Associate Director, CU Engage: Center for Community Based Learning and Research, University of Colorado – Boulder
Karen Ramirez
Director, CU Dialogues, University of Colorado – Boulder
Alison Kadlec
Founding Partner, Sova Solutions
Pilar Protsko
Assistant Director for Coordination and Outreach, CU Dialogues, University of Colorado – Boulder
Jennifer Pacheco
Graduate Student, School of Education, University of Colorado – Boulder
ELEVATE: Using Appreciative Inquiry to Develop a New Strategic Plan
How do you develop a community-driven strategic plan with a large, diverse group of people? Adams 12 Five Star Schools, north of Denver, spent a year using the Appreciative Inquiry process to bring together over 7,000 parents, community members, students and staff from 49 different schools to develop a five-year strategic plan to elevate student success. Learn about the Appreciative Inquiry process and how it can be used to mobilize and motivate diverse groups of stakeholders to achieve a collective effort in developing organizational goals.
Mark Poshak
Culture and Engagement Coordinator, Adams 12 Five Star Schools
Barbara Lewis
Principal, Rocky Mountain Center for Positive Change
More to come soon!
Participatory Budgeting Lessons Over Last 30 Years
Participatory Budgeting has been rapidly growing across the world for the last 30 years, in all levels of government, in organizations, and in schools. There was a report released by the Hewlett Foundation and Omidyar Network on the current state of PB and its future; and NCDD member org, the Participatory Budgeting Project, recorded a webinar with the report authors, Stephanie McNulty and Brian Wampler. You can listen to the webinar in the article below and find the original on PBP’s site here.
Lessons from 30 years of a global experiment in democracy
The Hewlett Foundation and Omidyar Network recently funded a major new report on the lessons learned from 30 years of participatory budgeting (PB). In July, we hosted a webinar about the state and future of PB with report authors Stephanie McNulty and Brian Wampler.
Check out the webinar recording, slides, and key takeaways below.
We asked Stephanie and Brian about what it meant to write this report in 2018, a time of great change for PB and for democracy.
Stephanie spoke to how PB has grown since beginning in Brazil in 1989: “It’s sort of exploding, and happening all over the world in places that are very different from Brazil… It’s taking place faster than we can document and analyze.”
Brian shared about experimentation in PB happening with a variety of focus areas and in new contexts. Part of the power of PB is in how adaptable it is. Many folks experiment with how to design PB to best serve their community. And so, PB looks different in the more than 7,000 localities it exists in around the world.
“PB is probably the most widespread public policy tool to undertake what we consider democratizing democracy.”- Stephanie McNulty
In 30 years, PB has created significant impacts. Doing PB and studying it need more investment to further impact democracy. We’re still learning about the ways that PB can transform individuals and communities.
Early research suggests PB strengthens the civic attitudes and practices of participants, elected officials, and civil servants. Beyond changes at the individual level, the report documents changes at the community level. Changes at the community level include greater accountability, stronger civil society, improved transparency, and better well-being.
But, in the end, good PB doesn’t just happen; it has to be built. It requires intentional effort to ensure that PB practice lives up to its promise. It can yield benefits for those who participate in the early stages, but it takes time for those to expand to broader areas. PB is growing faster as more people learn about it’s potential. We need further research to learn from what advocates on the ground know about PB’s impact—as well as it’s areas for improvement. The future of PB will require effort and sustained resources to support new ways of placing power in the hands of the people.
The report documents key ways PB has transformed over 30 years.
- Scale. PB started at the municipal level in Brazil, and now exists in every level of government, and even within government agencies. PB is now being done for schools, colleges, cities, districts, states, and nations—places where people are looking for deeper democracy.
- Secret ballots to consensus-based processes. When we spoke about what was most surprising or unexpected while writing the report, Brian talked about the shift in how communities make decisions in PB often moving from secret ballots to consensus-based processes.
- Technology. New technologies are used for recruitment, to provide information, and to offer oversight. We don’t fully understand the benefits and limitations of this particular transformation, and look forward to more research on this question.
- Increased donor interest. More international donors are interested in promoting and supporting PB.
- A shift away from pro-poor roots. PB in Brazil began as a project of the Workers Party to pursue social justice and give power to marginalized communities and the disenfranchised. This is a core reason why many look to PB to solve deeply entrenched problems of inequity in the democratic process. Unfortunately today, many PB processes around the world do not have an explicit social justice goals.
We’ve learned that focusing on social justice actually makes PB work better. PB processes that seek to include traditionally marginalized voices make it easier for everyone to participate in making better decisions.
To wrap up our webinar, Laura Bacon from Omidyar Network, David Sasaki from the Hewlett Foundation, and our Co-Executive Director at PBP, Josh Lerner shared takeaways for grantmakers.
They discussed what we need to make the transformative impacts of PB be bigger and more widespread.
Medium and long term investment is important for PB success. One off investments don’t create the impacts of PB and can lead to a decline in quality.- Government support is crucial. PB works best when it complements government—not opposes it.
- Watch out for participation fatigue. If the conditions for successful PB are not fully in place, residents and advocacy organizations can grow weary of continued involvement.
- Funders should focus PB grantmaking in areas that have conditions in place for it to be successful. They should look at political, economic, and social contexts before funding the process.
Want more updates on the state and future of PB? Sign up for PBP’s Newsletter
You can find the original version of this article on the Participatory Budgeting Project site at www.participatorybudgeting.org/lessons-from-30-years-of-pb/.
ENGAGING IDEAS – 08/17/2018
Democracy
Why a Free Press Matters (The Atlantic)
Journalists
have been keeping a check on power since the creation of the First Amendment.
Now, they're being tested. Continue Reading
On the Ambiguity of "Democracy" in America
(commondreams.org)
In
American public discourse - articulated by public officials, media outlets,
and ordinary citizens of virtually all political stripes - the United States is
called a democracy. However, this attribution is false and has been so since
the foundation of the republic. Many know this, but many don't. And the misuse
of the term has become unusually, politically consequential since November,
2016. Continue Reading
What Americans want from reform in 2018 (Brookings Institution)
The
rebuilders now have the momentum to win a plurality in the midterm elections
and are on track to becoming a president-maker in 2020, even as the dismantlers
fight to maintain control. Continue Reading
Opportunity/Inequality
Maybe Worker Inequality Isn't Inevitable After
All (Bloomberg)
In
the 2000s and coming out of the great recession, increased inequality between
educated knowledge workers and less-educated and goods-producing workers seemed
inevitable. Continue Reading
2017 was a great year for CEOs. Not so much for the average
worker. (Vox)
A
new study shows that CEOs made about 312 times more money in 2017 than the
average worker. Continue Reading
What American inequality looks like from above (Fast Company)
The
story of inequality in the United States is written in its streets. In Silicon
Valley, it looks like a homeless encampment carved out of a scruffy patch of
land that's separated from Facebook and Instagram headquarters by the
expressway filled with private tech buses. In Baltimore, it looks like an empty
highway that displaced thousands of families and was never even completed. In
Detroit, it looks like a cinderblock wall that was built in the 1940s to
separate black and white neighborhoods and shape the street grid. Continue Reading
Engagement
State Rep. supports civics education bill (The Landmark)
Senate
Bill 2631, An Act to promote and enhance civic engagement, passed the House of
Representatives and Senate unanimously on July 25 by votes of 151-0 and 37-0,
respectively. The bill, which is now under review by Governor Charlie Baker,
represents a compromise between two earlier versions of the legislation
previously approved by the two branches. Continue Reading
Despite the Risks, Some States Are Handcuffed to Limited Online
Voting Options (Government Technology)
Top
computer researchers gave a startling presentation recently about how to
intercept and switch votes on emailed ballots, but officials in the 30 or so
states said the ease with which votes could be changed wouldn't alter their
plans to continue offering electronic voting in some fashion. Continue Reading
Need help understanding the city budget? Grab a toy car and get
to work (Denverrite)
Starting
on Thursday, and for five days only, Denverites interested in art, weird
machines or civic engagement can catch a blend of all three of those things in
a new installation by Warm Cookies of the Revolution, the quirky
"Civic Health Club" whose mission is to connect people with their
city in innovative ways. Continue Reading
K-12
Florida told its low-scoring schools to make their days longer.
It helped, new research finds (Chalkbeat)
In
Florida, the extended-day push began in 2012 with the state's 100 lowest
performing schools and expanded to 300 schools in 2014. Continue Reading
Undocumented students face hurdles getting into college. Here's
how Indiana teachers have helped them succeed (Chalkbeat)
Navigating
the college admissions process can be a challenge for any student, but in
Indiana, undocumented students can face extra hurdles in pursuing higher learning. That's
because Indiana is one of just six states that prohibits undocumented students
from receiving in-state tuition rates at public universities. Continue Reading
A year of personalized learning: Mistakes, moving furniture and
making it work (Hechinger Report)
In
the first year of a new program, a large San Diego district experiences small
victories despite growing pains. Continue Reading
Higher Ed/Workforce
Surprise Gift: Free Tuition for All N.Y.U. Medical Students (New
York Times)
The
New York University School of Medicine announced on Thursday that it would
cover the tuition of all its students, regardless of merit or need, citing
concerns about the "overwhelming financial debt" facing graduates. Continue Reading
Why Does Publishing Higher-Ed Research Take So Long? (Chronicle
of Higher Education)
Growth
in the discipline, a spike in quality and international submissions, reluctance
by scholars to review articles, and focus on a limited number of top
publications all contribute to backlogs and sluggish turnaround, say editors of
the top three journals in the field. Scholars are buzzing about prospective
solutions, including more and bigger journals, honoraria to encourage article
reviews, and an increase in online publication. Continue Reading
Vocational Training Is Back as Firms Pair With High Schools to
Groom Workers (Wall Street Journal)
The
renewed popularity of so-called career education programs marks a shift away
from the idea that all students should get a liberal-arts education designed to
prepare them for college. Continue Reading
Health Care
Rebates don't correlate to drug price spikes,
AHIP study says (Modern Healthcare)
A new Milliman study
commissioned by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) downplayed the overall
impact of rebates offered by drugmakers to insurers and pharmacy benefit
managers (PBMs) on total drug spending. The report blamed spiking costs on lack
of competition. Continue Reading
Study links real-time EHR alerts with fewer
complications, lower costs (Fierce Healthcare)
When physicians get the right kind of alert in an electronic
health record-and actually follow its recommendation-it could result in fewer
complications and lower costs among hospitalized patients, according to a new
study. Continue Reading
New rule pushes for hospital price transparency
(Employee Benefit Adviser)
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced a
proposed rule aimed at providing patients with a clear price listing of the
cost of their hospital charges. In an effort to fulfill the proposed rule's
objective, CMS suggested an amendment to the requirements previously
established by Section 2718(e) of the Affordable Care Act. Continue Reading
Listen to This Webinar on How to Hold a Ben Franklin Circle
Back in the day, Ben Franklin had established a mutual improvement club that he organized for over 40 years, in the spirit of dialogue and self improvement. It is in this vein, that the folks at the 92nd Street Y, created the Ben Franklin Circles (also an NCDD member org) to offer a framework to hold conversations on Franklin’s 13 virtues. NCDD partnered with BFC last year and we are thrilled to find this free webinar recently released that gives the basics on what a Circle entails. You can listen to the webinar below and find the original on BFC’s site here.
Ben Franklin Circles 101
This webinar covers the basics of Ben Franklin Circles – great for anyone looking to start one or brush up on the who, what, when, where and why!
Listen to BFC 101 or read the highlights below. Questions? Email us at benfranklincircles@gmail.com.
What is a Ben Franklin Circle?
- Small groups of people coming together to talk about how they can do good…in their lives, in their work, in their relationships and in the world.
- Circles choose one of Franklin’s 13 civic virtues and discuss what that virtue means today.
Where did the idea come from?
- From Franklin! Franklin wrote about his club for mutual improvement – his junto – in his autobiography.
- The Ben Franklin Circles team at 92nd Street Y updated Franklin’s structure for the 21st Century and created all the tools for people to host their own Circles.
Who are in the Circles?
- Circles are for anyone and everyone!
- Find members by personally inviting 5-10 people, posting on social meeting, creating a MeetUp group…or be brave, and drop some invites in your neighbors’ mailboxes and invite them to get together for a conversation.
Where do people host?
- Locations vary! Public libraries will often provide space. Some groups meet in peoples’ homes or in cafes or restaurants.
- You’re looking for a casual space that’s not too loud so you can have intimate conversations.
How often do Circles meet?
- Some meet monthly, some meet every week, some just meet once to try it out!
What’s next?
- Check out our toolkit and/or join our Host Facebook Group
- Set date, invite your members, set a location and you’re ready to go.
- Let us know when you’ve started so we can add you to our map, social media, host resources list serve and more!
Takeaways
- Circles are an opportunity to pause, reflect and connect with others around big ideas.
- Members are encouraged to leave each Circle conversation with one actionable thing they can do for good.
- Circles are very similar to a salon. The Circle model simply gives you an easy structure/topic to use for your conversations.
- There’s no wrong way to do this!
You can find the original version of this article on the Ben Franklin Circles’ site at www.benfranklincircles.org/webinar/ben-franklin-circles-101.