The Future of Family (IF Discussion Guide)

Posted on December 22, 2013 by NCDD Community

The Future of Family, a discussion guidebook from the Interactivity Foundation (IF), examines possibilities for public policy on family life distilled from a series of small-group discussions that wrestled with a wide range of questions and concerns for the future of family, including—

In a culturally diverse society, what roles should cultural heritage play in policy decisions about the family? Different cultures have different ideas about how families are formed, how big they should be, and the roles people have within them.
How should we address our changing ideas about gender roles and of human sexuality? How might public policy for the family take these into account?
As we face an increasingly aging or mobile population, what concerns might arise for families?
What about the economic concerns facing families?

The Future of Family Edited by IF Fellow Jeff Prudhomme and the Interactivity Foundation’s president Jack Byrd, Jr., this guidebook asks readers to consider how public policy might respond to these concerns. It invites readers to explore and discuss what values or moral considerations shape these policies? What are the rights and responsibilities in regard to the family that public policy should take into account? How should we approach the relationship between political power and the family? What are other moral, legal, or political concerns that our family policies might need to address?

For further exploration and discussion, the guidebook presents nine contrasting policy possibilities for the future of family:

Charter Whatever Family You Want
Reinforce the Traditional Nuclear Family
The Bigger the Better: Support Extended Families
Families are Safe Harbors
The Family as a School for Democracy
Break up Aristocracies for a More Democratic Society
The Family is Number One
Manage the Family for the Greater Good
Focus on the Basic Principles for Each Family Situation

For each of these possibilities, the discussion guidebook also describes possible implementations, effects (or consequences), and further discussion questions.

The Interactivity Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works to enhance the process and expand the scope of our public discussions through facilitated small-group discussion of multiple and contrasting possibilities. The Foundation does not engage in political advocacy for itself, any other organization or group, or on behalf of any of the policy possibilities described in its discussion guidebooks. For more information, see the Foundation’s website at www.interactivityfoundation.org.

Resource Link: www.interactivityfoundation.org/new-discussion-guidebook-future-family

Making Public Participation Legal

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

Most of the laws that govern public participation in the U.S. are over thirty years old. They do not match the expectations and capacities of citizens today, they pre-date the Internet, and they do not reflect the lessons learned in the last two decades about how citizens and governments can work together. Increasingly, public administrators and public engagement practitioners are hindered by the fact that it’s unclear if many of the best practices in participation are even allowed by the law.

Making Public Participation Legal, a 2013 publication of the National Civic League (with support from the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation), presents a valuable set of tools, including a model ordinance, set of policy options, and resource list, to help communities improve public participation.

The tools and articles in Making Public Participation Legal were developed over the past year by the Working Group on Legal Frameworks for Public Participation — an impressive team convened and guided by Matt Leighninger of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC).

In addition to DDC, NCL and NCDD, the Working Group also includes representatives of the American Bar Association, International Municipal Lawyers Association, National League of Cities, Policy Consensus Initiative, International Association for Public Participation, and International City/County Management Association, as well as leading practitioners and scholars of public participation.

The publication was released at a launch event on October 23rd at the Brookings Institution in D.C. The launch event was opened by Darrell West, Brookings’ VP and director of Governance Studies and the director of the Center for Technology Innovation. Members of an expert panel described the overarching problem as the lack of guiding principles to govern civic engagement. The panelists included moderator Matt Leighninger, executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, Lisa Blomgren Amsler, professor of public service at Indiana University, Mike Huggins, former city manager in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Kevin Curry, Program Director for the Code for America Brigade.

The main remedy the panelists proposed was the Model Municipal Public Participation Ordinance. Prof. Amsler said it would be a starting point to set the ground for whoever wants to innovate. The way public participation is defined in the ordinance allows for increased freedom of discussion and innovation. She also advocated for local government offices to appoint an individual to learn about public engagement, pass on that knowledge, and bridge the gap between the local government and the people in regards to public participation.

Leighninger described the situation created by the ordinance as “a model which … does not require public participation in any particular format but enables and supports what we hope will be better public participation.”

Huggins also supported the ordinance because it would create a positive definition of public participation as a public good. He saw it as an important way to foster more communication between the government and the public. To Huggins, the ordinance would build a capacity for local elected officials to have support from the community through discussion and innovation.

See the Brookings Institutions’ full overview of the event here, or download the audio archive here.

Resource Link: http://www.allamericacityaward.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Making-Public-Participation-Legal_Layout-1-8.pdf (or our shortcut link, www.tinyurl.com/p2law)

Dialogue In Nigeria: Muslims & Christians Creating Their Future

Posted on December 12, 2013 by NCDD Community

Dialogue In Nigeria: Muslims & Christians Creating Their Future is a 65-minute video highlighting how two hundred courageous Christian and Muslim young adults met in face-to-face dialogue, listening to learn and discovering their equal humanity, new communication skills, and that “an enemy is one whose story we have not heard.”

Co-produced in January 2012 by the New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation and the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue, this program shares experiences from the 2010 International Conference on Youth and Interfaith Communication.

Dialogue In Nigeria is distributed on DVD and available upon request, postage included, for dialogue and deliberation practitioners, students, and trainers worldwide. Follow the link below to learn more, request your own copy and to see increasing social outcomes of ethnic and tribal healing in other African nations and worldwide.

Resource Link: www.traubman.igc.org/vidnigeria.htm

This resource was submitted by Libby and Len Traubman of the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue via the Add-a-Resource form.

Challenges to Democracy Public Dialogue Series and Blog

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government advances excellence and innovation in governance and public policy through research, education, and public discussion. One of its three major programs is the Program on Democratic Governance, which researches those practices that resolve urgent social problems in developed and developing societies.

In honor of its 10th anniversary, the Ash Center launched a public dialogue series named Challenges to Democracy. Through a series of events with scholars, policymakers, journalists, and artists, the Center seeks to broaden and deepen public dialogue on how we might address democracy’s greatest challenges in order to adapt and preserve our form of government.

The series launched October 3 with a standing room-only event featuring a panel discussion moderated by WBUR and NPR’s On Point host Tom Ashbrook on the threat economic inequality poses to the health of American democracy—and broadcast on the On Point radio program. Additional challenges will include immigration, lack of representation, business power, political polarization, the risks and opportunities created by digital technologies, the place of cities in American democracy, the decline of popular movements, and more.

The Challenges to Democracy Blog, launched in October 2013 by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, captures the stories and lessons of the public dialogue series, exploring ways that American democracy is being tested, digging deeper into possible solutions, and pointing readers to news stories germane to the series. The blog provides unique content including in-depth accounts and audio and video recordings of past events, interviews with public figures asking their thoughts on the greatest challenges to democracy, lengthy excerpts from the books of featured speakers, and posts highlighting new research from the Ash Center faculty and Democracy Fellows.

The Challenges to Democracy Blog is edited by Archon Fung, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship at Harvard Kennedy School.

Resource Link: www.challengestodemocracy.us/home/

Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Courtney Breese

This 2010 book by Henry Giroux capitalizes upon the popularity of zombies, exploring the relevance of the metaphor they provide for examining the political and pedagogical conditions that have produced a growing culture of sadism, cruelty, disposability, and death in America.

The zombie metaphor may seem extreme, but it is particularly apt for drawing attention to the ways in which political culture and power in American society now operate on a level of mere survival. This book uses the metaphor not only to suggest the symbolic face of power: beginning and ending with an analysis of authoritarianism, it attempts to mark and chart the visible registers of a kind of zombie politics, including the emergence of right-wing teaching machines, a growing politics of disposability, the emergence of a culture of cruelty, and the ongoing war being waged on young people, especially on youth of color. By drawing attention to zombie politics and authoritarianism, this book aims to break through the poisonous common sense that often masks zombie politicians, anti-public intellectuals, politics, institutions, and social relations, and bring into focus a new language, pedagogy, and politics in which the living dead will be moved decisively to the margins rather than occupying the very center of politics and everyday life.

Reviews

“In this timely and compelling critique of U.S. political culture, Henry Giroux makes clear how it is that Americans are living through what Hannah Arendt once called ‘dark times’, times in which the violence and cruelty of human disposability remains hidden in the black light of an increasingly authoritarian public realm. Passionately and incisively argued, Giroux’s critique offers insight into the political and pedagogical conditions that have produced a ‘zombie politics’ and its associated forms of authoritarianism. In this respect, Giroux illuminates what we need to see in order to reconstitute a lost social democratic imagination.”

-Roger I. Simon, University of Toronto

“Henry Giroux offers his most passionate defense yet of democracy and civic values in his new book. This volume is a must-read in dark times like these. Giroux has for decades been an outstanding tribune for democracy, an advocate for civic values and for questioning the unequal status quo. In this new book, he takes up more vigorously than ever the threats to the public sphere from reactionary forces gaining momentum. For Giroux, these threats to humane democracy fit the ‘zombie aesthetic’ now pervading television, film, and popular culture. Politics has become a monstrous caricature of public deliberation with wild propositions and charges spreading fear and division. Giroux explores the hostile forces sucking the blood out of our constitutional rights as well as the vitality out of ordinary families. We have become a society of monopolized wealth and distributed poverty, a culture of endless war, legalized torture, detention without trial, bursting prisons, and schools that turn our bright children into data. These intolerable conditions require the outrage and insight Giroux offers in his new book. He has written a volume inviting us to democratic action and civic restoration before these dark times grow even darker.”

-Ira Shor, Professor, City University of New York

Henry A. Giroux holds the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Canada. His most recent books include The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex (2007), Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability? (2009), Politics Beyond Hope (2010), and Hearts of Darkness: Torturing Children in the War on Terror (2010).

Resource Link: http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Culture-Capitalism-Popular-Everyday/dp/1433112264

Mental Illness in America: How Can We Address a Growing Problem? (NIF Issue Advisory)

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Courtney Breese

In October 2013, National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) released an Issue Advisory that contains materials that can be used in deliberating over the issue of the impact of mental illness in America. This “issue advisory” is not a full NIF issue guide, but a basic outline of the options, entitled Mental Illness in America: How Do We Address a Growing Problem? It can be downloaded here.

From the introduction…

Many Americans share a sense that something is wrong with how we address mental health and mental illness. More and more of us are taking medications for depression, hyperactivity, and other disorders. Meanwhile, however, dangerous mental illnesses are going undetected and untreated.

According to some, recent violent incidents reflect the need to increase security and increase our ability to detect mental illness. Others point to increasing numbers of veterans returning from overseas with post-traumatic stress disorders as a major concern. One in five Americans will have mental health problems in any given year. Unaddressed mental illness hurts individuals and their families and results in lost productivity. In rare cases, it can result in violence.

This Issue Advisory presents a framework that asks: How can we reduce the impact of mental
illness in America?

This issue advisory presents three options for deliberation, along with their drawbacks:

Option One: Put Safety First – more preventive action is necessary to deal with mentally ill individuals who are potentially dangerous to themselves or others.
Option Two: Ensure Mental Health Services are Available to All Who Need them – people
should be encouraged to take control over their own mental health and be provided the tools to do so.
Option Three: Let People Plot their Own Course – we should not rely on so many medical approaches and allow people the freedom to plot their own course to healthy lives.

Resource Link: http://nifi.org/stream_document.aspx?rID=25092&catID=6&itemID=25088&typeID=8 (pdf)

Harnessing Collaborative Technologies: Helping Funders Work Together Better

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

In November 2013, Monitor Institute and the Foundation Center released a new report called Harnessing Collaborative Technologies: Helping Funders Work Together Better. As part of the research, we looked at more than 170 different technological tools now available to funders, dove deeply into the literature on philanthropic collaboration, analyzed the results of recent Foundation Center surveys, and spoke with a wide range of experts from the worlds of both technology and philanthropy.

The Harnessing Collaborative Technologies report helps readers make sense of the dizzying array of technologies that are now available to help those engaged in both low- and high-intensity collaborations by parsing the different collaborative needs of funders. How can new tools help funders learn and get smarter about the issues they care about? How can the technologies help you find and connect with potential partners? How can they help you transact business together? Which technologies can help you assess collective progress and measure outcomes? The report encourages funders to start with these collaborative needs rather than with the technologies themselves, to ensure that solutions fit the wants, requirements, and limitations of users.

Harnessing Collaborative Technologies also provides a set of principles that offer guidance for tool developers and funders about how to make thoughtful choices when investing in the creation and adaptation of new tools that facilitate collaborative work.

In addition to the gorgeous 43-page report, a super-useful interactive tool has been developed by GrantCraft at http://collaboration.grantcraft.org to help people identify tools to facilitate collaboration. This must-see tool is a joint service of the Foundation Center and the European Foundation Centre.

The report’s main headlines won’t come as a huge surprise to anyone: (1) more than ever before, funders are recognizing that they will need to collaborate to effectively to address the complex, intractable problems that we now face, and (2) new technologies—from simple group scheduling tools to comprehensive online collaboration workspaces—are now available to help facilitate the often challenging process of working together.

But there’s a deeper story beneath the headlines: about how these emerging technologies are enabling new types collaborations that weren’t possible (or at least much were more difficult) just a few years ago.

While much of the talk about collaboration these days centers on large, formal “collective impact” initiatives and “needle-moving” collaboratives, these types of highly intensive collaborative approaches aren’t necessarily right for all funders, all situations, and all purposes. In some cases, funders are simply looking to learn together. In others, they’re just aiming to understand the broader ecosystem of activity so they can act independently but still align their efforts with those of others.

New technologies are changing the playing field and making it cheaper and easier than ever before to facilitate these different types of “lower-intensity” collaborative activities. New collaborative platforms are helping funders share files and information, and can provide important forums for ongoing dialogue and conversation. Online project management systems are streamlining processes for coordinating and aligning action. And new tools for aggregating data and visualizing information now allow funders to see the larger funding landscape that they are a part of in new ways.

These simpler, technology-facilitated collaborative activities may not yield the outsized results of more complex, formal efforts, but they often produce very real improvements and outcomes, while also helping to build relationships and momentum that can build towards higher-intensity efforts.

By getting smarter about how we develop and use these collaborative tools, we have an opportunity to alleviate some of the “friction in the system” that has made working together—even in lower intensity ways—difficult until now. And in doing so, we can ease the path to collaboration and help aggregate resources and effort that can match the scale of the problems we now face.

Resource Link: http://monitorinstitute.com/blog/2013/11/07/collaborative-technologies-reducing-the-friction-in-the-system/

Grantcraft tool that helps you find EXACT tool you need: http://collaboration.grantcraft.org/

Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikistan, & Argentina

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Courtney Breese

This 2013 book written by Julie Fisher and published by the Kettering Foundation Press, focuses on the roles of democratization nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in three countries in the developing world: South Africa, Tajikistan, and Argentina.

The book is organized around three chapters for each country, South Africa, Tajikistan, and Argentina. The first chapter of each country’s section begins with the historical, political, and economic context and continues with a discussion of the general contours of civil society. The second chapter in each section deals with the role of democratization NGOs in promoting both loyal opposition and law-based civil liberties. The third chapter focuses on their role in promoting political culture and political participation. Loyal opposition and law-based civil liberties help define democratization at the national level, whereas changes in political culture and increased political participation often occur throughout society. Following the nine country chapters, the book concludes with a comparative overview and implications for international policy.

Fisher, a former Kettering Foundation program officer, writes that the idea that democracy can be exported has lost credibility in recent years. In many countries, however, democratization NGOs are importing democratic ideas and recovering local democratic traditions.

From the book’s Introduction:

Nothing has so discredited the attempt to export democracy militarily as the Iraq and Afghan wars. Both Iraq and Afghanistan remind us that democracy must be built from within. Even peaceful efforts to export democracy, undertaken with the best of intentions, can founder on the reefs of simplistic Western visions of other societies.

A common response to this failure is to assume that many countries are simply not suited to democracy, at least for the foreseeable future. This book is about the people of three countries–South Africa, Tajikistan, and Argentina–who refuse to be so easily dismissed and who have already started the long, arduous process of democratization from within. They have done this, first, by “importing” democratic ideas from abroad and, second, by rediscovering indigenous democratic traditions….

Table of Contents includes:

Preface & Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 South Africa: History, Politics, & Civil Society

Chapter 3 The Role of Civil Society in South Africa: Building a Loyal Opposition & Law-Based Civil Liberties

Chapter 4 The Role of Civil Society in South Africa II: Nurturing a Democratic Political Culture & Deepening Political Participation

Chapter 5 Tajikistan: History, Politics & Civil Society

Chapter 6 The Role of Civil Society in Tajikistan: Building a Loyal Opposition & Law-Based Civil Liberties

Chapter 7 The Role of Civil Society in Tajikistan II: Nurturing a Democratic Political Culture & Deepening Political Participation

Chapter 8 Argentina: History, Politics, & Civil Society

Chapter 9 The Role of Civil Society in Argentina: Loyal Opposition, Strengthening the State, and Law-Based Civil Liberties

Chapter 10 The Role of Civil Society in Argentina II: Nurturing a Democratic Political Culture & Deepening Political Participation

Chapter 11 Conclusions

Chapter 12 International Implications & Recommendations

Appendix I List of Interviews

Appendix II Democratization NGOs in Other Countries

Appendix III An Overview of Democracy Assistance

Appendix IV Research Methods

List of Acronyms

Bibliographies

Ordering info: The book is currently available for purchase from the Kettering Foundation or from Amazon.com

Resource Link: http://kettering.org/publications/importing-democracy/

Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikistan, & Argentina

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Courtney Breese

From the book’s Introduction:

Table of Contents includes:

Preface & Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 South Africa: History, Politics, & Civil Society

Chapter 3 The Role of Civil Society in South Africa: Building a Loyal Opposition & Law-Based Civil Liberties

Chapter 4 The Role of Civil Society in South Africa II: Nurturing a Democratic Political Culture & Deepening Political Participation

Chapter 5 Tajikistan: History, Politics & Civil Society

Chapter 6 The Role of Civil Society in Tajikistan: Building a Loyal Opposition & Law-Based Civil Liberties

Chapter 7 The Role of Civil Society in Tajikistan II: Nurturing a Democratic Political Culture & Deepening Political Participation

Chapter 8 Argentina: History, Politics, & Civil Society

Chapter 9 The Role of Civil Society in Argentina: Loyal Opposition, Strengthening the State, and Law-Based Civil Liberties

Chapter 10 The Role of Civil Society in Argentina II: Nurturing a Democratic Political Culture & Deepening Political Participation

Chapter 11 Conclusions

Chapter 12 International Implications & Recommendations

Appendix I List of Interviews

Appendix II Democratization NGOs in Other Countries

Appendix III An Overview of Democracy Assistance

Appendix IV Research Methods

List of Acronyms

Bibliographies

Ordering info: The book is currently available for purchase from the Kettering Foundation or from Amazon.com

Resource Link: http://kettering.org/publications/importing-democracy/

IAF pioneer Mirja Hanson interview from Meeting Tips Radio

Posted on October 28, 2013 by NCDD Community

This podcast (audio recording) from Meeting Tips Radio features an interview with Mirja Hanson. Mirja is a well-known author and pioneer in the field of meeting facilitation. She has been a trainer for the Institute of Cultural Affairs for the past 39 years. She is also a founding member and past chair of the International Association of Facilitators and is known for creating collaborative tools like the WAVE Trend Analysis and is an accomplished author. Her book, Clues to Achieving Consensus: A Leader’s Guide to Navigating Collaborative Problem Solving; is not only a popular book for meeting facilitators but it is A step-by-step guide to effective action in school districts, agencies, companies, organizations, and communities by using consensus decision-making.

Meeting Tips Radio describes itself as “an excellent resource for anyone who runs meetings including: meeting facilitators, corporate executives, non-profit executives, managers, CIOs, business managers, IT managers, project managers, business analysts and strategic planners. Collaborative facilitation, face-to face facilitation, and virtual facilitation methods are discussed. Special guests include the best facilitators in the world from the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) and the International Association of Facilitators. Guests also include non-trained facilitators who use meeting facilitation skills in their daily work. Be sure to listen-in and pick up some basic skills that will help you improve your meetings, improve your career, and improve your life!”

Resource Link: www.meetingtipsradio.com/mirjahanson/

This resource was submitted by Reine Kassulker, host of Meeting Tips Radio, via the Add-a-Resource form.

Civic Studies

An intellectual community of researchers and practitioners dedicated to building the emerging field of civic studies

Category Archives: All Resources

The Future of Family (IF Discussion Guide)

Making Public Participation Legal

Dialogue In Nigeria: Muslims & Christians Creating Their Future

Challenges to Democracy Public Dialogue Series and Blog

Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism

Reviews

Mental Illness in America: How Can We Address a Growing Problem? (NIF Issue Advisory)

From the introduction…

Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikistan, & Argentina

Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikistan, & Argentina