Fall 2019 IAP2 Trainings with The Participation Company

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

If you are looking to step up your public participation skill-building game this fall, then we encourage folks to check out the newly released training schedule from NCDD member org The Participation Company. TCP offers certification in the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)‘s model, and dues-paying NCDD members get a discount on registration! You can read more about the trainings in the TCP announcement below and learn more here.

The Participation Company’s 2019 Training Events

If you work in communications, public relations, public affairs, planning, public outreach and understanding, community development, advocacy, or lobbying, this training will help you to increase your skills and to be of even greater value to your employer.

This is your chance to join the many thousands of practitioners worldwide who have completed the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) certificate training.

The Participation Company (TPC) offers discounted rates to members of AICP, ICMA, IAP2, and NCDD.

AICP members can earn Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for these courses.

IAP2’s Foundations in Public Participation (5-Day) Certificate Program:

Planning for Effective Public Participation (3-Days)
Techniques for Effective Public Participation (2-Days)*

2019 Events

Sept 11-13 Denver, CO (3-Day Planning)
Sept 24-26 Orange County, CA (3-Day Planning)
Oct 7-11 Kansas City, MO (5-Days, Both Planning & Techniques)
Oct 14-18 Pittsburgh, PA (5-Days, Both Planning & Techniques)
Oct 21-25 Phoenix, AZ (5-Days, Both Planning & Techniques)
Oct 21-22 Denver, CO (2-Day Techniques)
Oct 23-25 Colorado Springs, CO (3-Day Planning)
Nov 21-22 Orange County, CA (2-Day Techniques)
Nov 4-5 Colorado Springs, CO (2-Day Techniques)
Dec 2-6 Salt Lake City, UT (5-Days, Both Planning & Techniques)
Dec 9-13 West Palm Beach, FL (5-Days, Both Planning & Techniques)

2020 Events

Jan 13-17 Charlotte, NC (5-Days, Both Planning & Techniques)
Feb 24-28 Phoenix, AZ (5-Days, Both Planning & Techniques)
Apr 20-24 Plano, TX (5-Days, Both Planning & Techniques)

*The 3-Day Planning training is a prerequisite to Techniques training

IAP2’s Strategies for Dealing with Opposition and Outrage in Public Participation (2-Days)
formally Emotion, Outrage – newly revised and renamed

2019 Events

Oct 7-8 Saint Paul, MN
Nov 18-19 Phoenix, AZ
Nov 21-22 Chicago, IL

Register online www.theparticipationcompany.com/training/calendar

The Participation Company can also assist you and your organization in other endeavors! Our team of highly experienced professionals help government and business clients manage public issues to accomplish client’s objectives. We can plan and manage your participation project from start to finish. We can provide strategic advice and direction. We can coach and mentor your staff and managers. We help you build agreements and craft durable and defensible decisions.

You can find the original version of this announcement on the TPC site at www.theparticipationcompany.com/training/calendar/.

Upcoming Webinars Related to Dialogue & Deliberation

Posted on August 28, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

Here are the upcoming D&D online events happening over the next few weeks, including NCDD sponsor org The Courageous Leadership Project, NCDD member org Living Room Conversations, as well as, from the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and International City/County Management Association (ICMA).

NCDD’s online D&D event roundup is a weekly compilation of the upcoming events happening in the digital world related to dialogue, deliberation, civic tech, engagement work, and more! Do you have a webinar or other digital event coming up that you’d like to share with the NCDD network? Please let us know in the comments section below or by emailing me at keiva[at]ncdd[dot]org, because we’d love to add it to the list!

Upcoming Online D&D Events: Living Room Conversations, IAF, The Courageous Leadership Project, ICMA

Online Living Room Conversation: Social Equity – 90-Minute Online Conversation

Thursday, September 5th
8:30 am Pacific, 11:30 am Eastern

Social equity can be defined as a commitment to promote fair, just, and equitable recognition of basic needs of all residents and the total community, and a commitment to diligently advocate for the provision of those needs to all residents and the total community. This conversation focuses on our own personal and community experiences with the idea of social equity and our beliefs that there is a common good in the recognition and acceptance of this idea. HERE is the conversation guide.

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/living-room-conversation-social-equity/

Living Room Conversations Training (free): The Nuts & Bolts of Living Room Conversations

Thursday, September 5th
2 pm Pacific, 5 pm Eastern

Join us for 90 minutes online to learn about Living Room Conversations. We’ll cover what a Living Room Conversation is, why we have them, and everything you need to know to get started hosting and/or participating in Living Room Conversations. This training is not required for participating in our conversations – we simply offer it for people who want to learn more about the Living Room Conversations practice.

Space is limited so that we can offer a more interactive experience. Please only RSVP if you are 100% certain that you can attend. This training will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. A link to join the conversation will be sent to participants the day before the training.

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/training-free-the-nuts-bolts-of-living-room-conversations-17/

Online Living Room Conversation: Abortion – 90-Minute Conversation w/ Optional 30-Minute Q & A with Hosts

Thursday, September 5th
4 pm Pacific, 7 pm Eastern

Abortion is seldom a topic that we speak about in casual conversation. More often we hear abortion talked about by news media, politicians or, more rarely, depicted in books, television shows or movies. In pretty much any situation, abortion elicits an intense emotional response. In the U.S. the conversation on abortion generally centers on whether you are “for” or “against” it and very rarely explores personal narratives, what we believe about abortion as a decision, what the procedure entails, or how abortion affects an individual’s reproductive and mental health. Engaging in an honest and vulnerable conversation on abortion provides an opportunity to explore the depths of our beliefs about sex, life, death, agency and parenting. It gets at the very root of what we care deeply for in life and opens the door to finding potential common ground. Here is the conversation guide.

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/abortion-90-minute-conversation-w-optional-30-minute-q-a-with-hosts/

International Association of Facilitators webinar – Use of Language to Create Inclusiveness in Groups

Monday, September 9th
3 pm Pacific, 6 pm Eastern

This session will explore the power of language and how it has the ability to create an inclusive environment, or unconsciously exclude people from hearing what you have to say. Expand your facilitation skills through building self-awareness of the things you communicate to others and how you can begin to rephrase your thoughts and words. Annette Denny from The University of Waterloo in Canada will lead the session.

REGISTER: www.iaf-world.org/site/events/webinars

The Courageous Leadership Project webinar – Brave, Honest Conversations

Wednesday, September 11th
9 am Pacific, 12 pm Eastern

Some conversations are hard to have. Fear and discomfort build in your body and you avoid and procrastinate or pretend everything is fine. Sometimes you rush in with urgency, wanting to smooth things over, fix them, and make them better. Sometimes you go to battle stations, positioning the conversation so you have a higher chance of being on the “winning” side. NONE OF THIS WORKS. Instead, it usually makes a hard conversation harder; more divided, polarized, and disconnected from others. The more people involved, the harder the conversation can be. I believe that brave, honest conversations are how we solve the problems we face in our world – together.

In this webinar, we will cover: What is a Brave, Honest Conversation? Why have one? What can change because of a brave, honest conversation? How do you have one? What do you need to think about and do? How do you prepare yourself for a brave, honest conversation?

REGISTER: www.bravelylead.com/events/bhcfreewebinar

International City/County Management Association (ICMA) webinar – Grappling with Gnarly Issues-How Local Government Can Help

Wednesday, September 11th
10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern

Communities want their local governments to take action on tough issues, sometimes even when a local government may not be the primary entity responsible. Learn about successful efforts by local governments to tackle gnarly issues like environmental challenges, opioids, and homelessness. Gain insights and approaches you can use to address the tough issues your agency faces.

REGISTER: https://icma.org/events/free-webinar-grappling-gnarly-issues-how-local-government-can-help

Some FCSS Conference Highlights!

Posted on August 27, 2019 by stevemasy

agenda

A reminder, dear friends and colleagues, that the Florida Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference is fast approaching (and you can register here!). So let’s take a look at some of the sessions on the docket for the conference! We’ll be doing this over the next few weeks, highlighting 3 to 5 interesting sessions that are likely to draw your interest.

Saturday, October 19th

Using Place as a Primary Source

By using location/historical site websites as well as photographs taken by teachers at historic locations, we can use the geography and the structures of a given place to add to student understanding of why these locations (and the events pertaining to them) are significant. We can also use the images/films of the locations to analyze why the site might have been important, what the sites can tell us and how they add to the context of their historical events and eras.

What an interesting approach to thinking about primary sources and exposing our kids to new lenses of disciplinary literacy!

Differentiated Instruction in Social Studies

what-is-differentiated-instruction-fi

This workshop will help K-12 instructors plan specific differentiated topics in Social Studies instruction to meet the diverse needs of students in the classroom i.e. students with disabilities, ELL students, and many more.

This is always a useful sort of session, isn’t it? We can always use more support for the work that we do within the diverse classrooms we work with today!

Captain America: More than a Shield!

Captain America is an iconic figure in both comic books and movies. This session will address whether Captain America is simply a tool of wartime propaganda or if he has a greater purpose.

I mean really. It’s CAPTAIN AMERICA! This session aligns well with both state benchmarks and with the Heroes and Villains theme of this year’s conference!

Table Top Escapes: Reinforcing Concepts for Review Through Problem Solving

Create your own table top escape room for reinforcement and review. Strategies can be applied to any discipline, grade level and using everyday materials. Digital escapes are also discussed and outlined. This is a hands-on sesssion! Participants will leave with strategies, tips and examples.

Is there anything hotter with than escape rooms these days? This sounds like a potentially useful and fascinating strategy for a wide variety of social studies content!

We’ll talk about some additional sessions soon! Go ahead and register here!

Localism as a Fulcrum for Global Change

Posted on August 27, 2019 by David Bollier

The Great Transition Initiative recently hosted one of the most thoughtful, robust exchange of ideas about “localism” that I’ve seen in a long time. It was kicked off by an essay by environmental activist and author Brian Tokar called “Think Globally, Act Locally?” which explored “the promise and pitfalls of localism, theories of ‘glocalism’ and scaling sideways and up.”

What followed were some probing responses by fourteen notable activists and academics who have thought long and hard about this topic – folks like Richard Heinberg, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Meg Holden, Frank Fischer, Arturo Escobar, and me, among others. Tokar gives a final round of responses to all of these commenters.

Tokar’s opening essay calls attention to the resurgence of progressive action at the local level and asks: “What are the prospects for such locally centered political engagement in a time of rising political polarization and conflict? How can local action help advance personal liberation and social justice? More broadly, how can it further our goals for global transformation?”

His review of the current state of localism is masterfully succinct yet broad-ranging. He rightly cites the great influence of Murray Bookchin and social ecology on the thinking of local activism from Kurdish militants in Syria and Turkey to North Americans and Europeans. Today there is a growing mosaic of local initiatives that is starting to take note of each other's efforts. There is community-based resistance to fracking in dozens of places, rural French workers revolting against regressive tax policies, climate action in hundreds of cities, a “municipalist” movement that is flourishing in cities like Barcelona and Jackson, Mississippi, and the expansion of the Symbiosis research network that is focused on localism.

A common denominator of many of these local activities, says Tokar, is a growing frustration with national politics and international institutions, and with the stranglehold of corporate influence at these levels on everything from climate policy and financial sector reform to trade and fair elections.

One recurring question is how local efforts can have a more significant impact beyond themselves, especially at national or international levels. Can local action “tackle the fundamental question of where and with whom political power resides?” asks Tokar. “We need to strengthen forms of coordination that emerge from the municipal context to support a growing network for change in synchrony with a global resurgence of solidarity, democracy, and justice.”

Much of the response by commenters focused on this very question – how can various local efforts coordinate with each other and develop a larger vision and network for change?

Rather than attempt to summarize the many different perspectives, I recommend a brisk read through the many lively responses. They raise some provocative questions about where the energies for social transformation will come from, how they might self-organize themselves to have real impact, and how they could change the very character of politics as we know it today.

on gaffes as evidence of sincere beliefs

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Peter

Among the many millions of words that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton uttered over the past decade are these two statements. Obama: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion …” Clinton: “you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.” These remarks are widely interpreted as evidence of the politicians’ authentic, private opinions about millions of Americans who are rural, white, lower-income, and tend to vote conservatively.

This method of analysis is practiced across the spectrum. In the midst of a long forum in Iowa, Joe Biden recently said that “poor kids” are “just as talented as white kids,” apparently revealing a hidden worldview in which poor = people of color and success = whiteness.

Michael Kinsley famously defined a “gaffe” as “when a politician tells the truth – some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.” Kinsley later clarified that the gaffe reveals “the truth about what he or she is really thinking” (not the truth about the world).

If you are trained to think in terms of representative samples, this method seems invalid. Take a large random sample of, say, Barack Obama’s public comments, and you will not find any pejorative comments about rural Americans. The “cling-to-guns” remark is constantly quoted because it is a statistical outlier. As Kinsley asked (criticizing his own concept): “why should something a politician says by accident — and soon wishes he hadn’t, whether true or not — automatically be taken as a better sign of his or her real thinking than something he or she says on purpose?”

In fact, there is a plausible theoretical reason to interpret gaffes as evidence of sincere beliefs. Let us assume that many individuals hold stable private beliefs about important topics, such as white rural voters or children of color. They realize that some of these beliefs are best kept to themselves. What they believe is unpopular and likely to be condemned. So they exercise mental discipline to block themselves from saying what they believe–most of the time. The problem is that we also have a tendency to state what we do believe. That tendency sometimes defeats the individual’s self-censorship, and out pops a gaffe.

You would not expect a sincere but impolitic belief to be common in the speaker’s discourse. It would not appear with statistical frequency, because self-censorship is pretty effective. But an anomaly is revealing. Why did Biden utter his remark about poor kids and white kids unless, in his private thoughts, poor = minority?

I summarize this theory because I think it can be valid in some cases, and I would not rule out the practice of pouncing on gaffes. But it is worth considering some alternative theoretical frameworks:

Perhaps in addition to some stable private beliefs, we also hold many unstable beliefs–ideas that come and go, that we half-believe or only occasionally believe, that we believe even though we also believe their opposite, that we adopted habitually early on but have sincerely rejected since then, or that we believe until we consider their logical implications, at which point we drop them.

Perhaps there are other common speech acts besides stating a sincere belief or not stating that belief. For example: trying out an idea that you’re not sure is true, saying something that you disbelieve by pure accident, saying something purely for its rhetorical affect, or saying something that you half-believe because you’re trying to make some other point that is salient for you at the time.

Perhaps what we believe is rarely stable because we are strongly influenced by the immediate context, by what we happen to notice at the moment from amid the Jamesian “blooming, buzzing confusion” of the world.

Perhaps conversation is highly relational, so that often what we’re doing when we talk is responding to a discussion partner. Responsiveness can turn into hypocrisy when we say one thing to one audience and a different thing to a different audience, just to win their favor. But responsiveness is also a virtue. Particularly if you consider a topic that isn’t politically or ethically loaded, it can be praiseworthy to be able to say different things to different people, just because you care about them.

To the extent that these theories obtain, deriving information from a gaffe is invalid.

Submit Application for NCL’s 2020 All-American City Awards

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

In case you missed it, applications are now being accepted for the 2020 All-American City Awards! Hosted by the National Civic League, an NCDD partner, this year’s award theme is focused on “Enhancing health and well-being through civic engagement”. We encourage you to watch the video from the 2018 awardees with tips on how to apply and how the award has benefited their communities. We also recorded our co-hosted NCDD-NCL Confab call earlier this spring which can provide some great context and background information on the award – watch it here (please note the award theme this year is slightly different, though still in the same vein of health equity in communities). The deadline is Wednesday, February 19, 2020. You can read the announcement below and find the original version on NCL’s site here.

National Civic League’s 2020 All-America City Awards: Enhancing Health and Well-Being Through Civic Engagement

The National Civic League is now accepting applications for the 2020 All-America City Award, focused on enhancing health and well-being through civic engagement. With the National Civic League’s Co-Title Sponsors, Kaiser Permanente and Well Being Trust, the 2020 Awards reflect the concept that good health for the entire community requires a focus on mental, physical, spiritual, cultural and economic well-being.

We are looking for applicants with community-driven projects that reflect the concept that good health for the entire community requires a focus on mental, physical, spiritual, cultural and economic well-being.

Projects focusing on this theme might include:

healthy & safe environments
opportunities for lifelong learning
meaningful and well-paying jobs
affordable and humane housing
reliable transportation and accessibility
environmental health and safety
a sense of belonging and inclusion
access to mental health care
substance-abuse recovery and prevention
healthy eating and exercising
affordable, accessible health care

Begin your community’s application today to become a 2020 All-America City!

Important Dates

July 2019 – May 2020
All-America City Promising Practices Webinar Series
November 1, 2019
Submit Letter of Intent to Apply (not required to apply)
February 19, 2020
Applications Due
March 2020
Finalists Announced
March-June 2020
Competition Preparation
June 5-7, 2020
All-America City Awards Competition and Event in Denver, CO

You can find the original version of this announcement on the National Civic League’s site at www.nationalcivicleague.org/america-city-award/.

conservative engaged scholarship

Posted on August 22, 2019 by Peter

For the sake of argument, let’s define “engaged scholarship” as …

The organized production of knowledge by groups that include some professional academic researchers and some people who are not academics and belong to the communities, populations, or organizations being studied.

I don’t have a representative sample of projects of engaged scholarship, but I would venture these generalizations:

Often the topics are issues that are priorities on the left or center-left, such as health disparities, access to government services, or environmental damage.
Often the communities that participate in the research lean left: low-income urban neighborhoods, migrant farmworkers, etc. (In 2004, I met with Penn State faculty interested in community-based research and observed that most did not work in their surrounding communities–conservative central Pennsylvania–but drove to Philadelphia to do their engaged research.)
Yet some of the underlying values of this approach can be seen as conservative: a preference for the local and the nonprofit/voluntary sector over Big Government, deep appreciation for local traditions, and a tendency to do something directly about problems rather than trying to win elections to change laws. I’ve even argued that the most authentically Burkean conservative field in the US today is the field that connects universities with communities through service, community-based research, and other partnerships.

Especially given the third point, you’d expect to see conservative engaged scholarship. The academic researchers might vote Republican instead of Democratic or Green, they would work in and with communities that preferred Trump over Clinton, and they would study issues like taxes, regulation, zoning, and abortion (as problems).

But I am hard pressed to find any examples. There are cases in which conservative adolescents conduct research on issues of their choice and scholars support them. But in those cases, the scholars’ focus is usually on the kids and their learning, not the issue that the students have chosen to address.

Why the dearth of conservative engaged scholarship? I can imagine five answers:

It’s not missing; I just haven’t found it. Here is one program at Ashland University that might qualify, and maybe there are more.
Conservatives are simply scarce in the social sciences and relevant humanities (especially in fields like public health and education, in which applied work is most common), and this scarcity explains why not many conservatives do engaged scholarship.
Conservatives have found other rich veins to mine: quantitative economic modeling, Austrian School economics (which is not at all quantitative but is favorable to libertarian principles), constitutional law, and some domains of intellectual history. They’re busy there.
Despite not liking government as much as (some) liberals do, conservatives are more aware of its power, including at the local level. Therefore, they are skeptical that working with a local nonprofit on a research study will make nearly as much difference as, say, running for office or advocating ideas that win elections.
Principled conservatives haven’t yet figured out that they should embrace engaged scholarship. They should develop experience and exemplary cases that strengthen conservative voices in engaged scholarship.

I hope that the last point is true, because it would be good for the gatherings and networks of engaged scholars if they included more conservative concerns, populations, and thinkers.

Several Orgs Featured for our Wednesday Webinar Roundup

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

Our wonderful NCDD sponsor org The Courageous Leadership Project has another one of their webinars happening in just a few hours that we encourage you to check out! This week’s list of upcoming D&D webinar events also includes NCDD member orgs Living Room Conversations, National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI), and National Civic League, as well as, from the International Association of Facilitators (IAF).

Upcoming Online D&D Events: The Courageous Leadership Project, National Civic League, Living Room Conversations, IAP2, IAF

The Courageous Leadership Project webinar – Brave, Honest Conversations

Wednesday, August 21st
9 am Pacific, 12 pm Eastern

REGISTER: www.bravelylead.com/events/bhcfreewebinar

International Association of Facilitators webinar – Global Conversations

Two times available:

- Wednesday, August 21st at 3 am Pacific, 6 am Eastern
- Thursday, August 22nd at 11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern

Come and join the conversation and share your experiences with fellow facilitators from around the world. Using an innovative online platform you’ll be able to interact with colleagues and get to know them. Bring your preferred beverage to the conversation!

REGISTER: www.iaf-world.org/site/events/iaf-global-conversations

Living Room Conversations Training (free): The Nuts & Bolts of Living Room Conversations

Thursday, August 22nd
2 pm Pacific, 5 pm Eastern

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/training-free-the-nuts-bolts-of-living-room-conversations-15/

International Association of Facilitators webinar – Becoming a CPF with the IAF

Thursday, August 22nd
3 pm Pacific, 6 pm Eastern

Making the decision to seek the IAF Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) accreditation can be hard. Common questions people ask are What’s involved? How much time will it take? Will I meet the requirements? and What if I don’t pass? In response to strong interest from members, we will be exploring these questions at a webinar with hosts that have years of experience as professional facilitators and as IAF Assessors.

REGISTER: www.iaf-world.org/site/events/webinar-becoming-cpf-iaf-11

Online Living Room Conversation: Homelessness – 90-Minute Conversation w/ Optional 30-Minute Q & A with Hosts!

Thursday, August 22nd
4 pm Pacific, 7 pm Eastern

Homelessness in America is a problem that reminds us daily of our failure to be our best. How do we explain to children the presence of hungry, cold, neglected and often mentally ill men women and children on our streets in the midst of plenty? If we gather neighbors, business owners, health care workers, police, government officials, homeless people and their families in conversation might we build trust and begin to explore opportunities to do better? Conversations are admittedly only a starting point, but isn’t it time to start? Here is the conversation guide

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/homelessness-90-minute-conversation-w-optional-30-minute-q-a-with-hosts/

August CGA Forum Series: How Can We Stop Mass Shootings in Our Communities?

Saturday, August 24th
3 pm Pacific, 6 pm Eastern

Please join us for a Common Ground for Action (CGA) online deliberative forum on Saturday August 24th @ 6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT on How Can We Stop Mass Shootings in Our Communities? We’ll discuss this issue by considering the actions and drawbacks for three options: (1) reduce the threat of mass shootings; (2) equip people to defend themselves; and (3) root out violence in society.

REGISTER: www.nifi.org/en/events/august-cga-forum-series-how-can-we-stop-mass-shootings-our-communities

Online Living Room Conversation: Communicating with Care – 90-Minute Conversation w/ Optional 30-Minute Q & A with Hosts!

Monday, August 26th
4 pm Pacific, 7 pm Eastern

We may want to communicate with others in such a way that we gain knowledge and bridge divides, but those conversations don’t always come naturally. Most of us struggle to self-evaluate our communication skills and we might be unaware of words and actions that shut down healthy dialogue when discussing divisive issues. In this conversation, we will actively share and explore what works and what doesn’t, and we will reflect on ways that we can improve our interactions with others. Here is the conversation guide.

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/communicating-with-care-90-minute-conversation-w-optional-30-minute-qa-w-hosts-2/

National Civic League AAC Promising Practices Webinar – Improving Health and Fitness through Inclusive Community Challenges

Wednesday, August 28th
11:30 am Pacific, 2:30 pm Eastern

Join the National Civic League to learn how two of our 2019 All-America Cities are using community recreation challenges to improve health & fitness. Battle Creek, MI will tell us about Operation Fit, which is a healthy community initiative of Bronson Battle Creek, the Battle Creek Community Foundation, Regional Health Alliance, and the Battle Creek Family YMCA. The goal of Operation Fit is to decrease childhood obesity in Calhoun County.

REGISTER: www.nationalcivicleague.org/resource-center/promising-practices/

International Association of Facilitators webinar – Becoming a CPF with the IAF

Thursday, August 29th
2:30 pm Pacific, 5:30 pm Eastern

REGISTER: www.iaf-world.org/site/events/webinar-becoming-cpf-iaf-11

Online Living Room Conversation: Peace Building – 90-Minute Conversation w/ Optional 30-Minute Q & A with Hosts!

Thursday, August 29th
4 pm Pacific, 7 pm Eastern

The US has in many ways always been a divided society, but what is causing fierce political, social and ethnic divides in the United States today? Hate crimes and hate groups are increasingly visible, and political leaders are using ethnic identity, socio-economic identity — and an “us v. them” mentality — to create fear and increase polarization. This increase in tribalism and ethnic protection (including Republican vs. Democrat as core identities), reflect core grievances at the heart of what drives violent conflict in many countries all over the world. How did we get here and what are the peacebuilding solutions for a country that has long been considered the world’s most stable democracy? Here is the conversation guide.

REGISTER: www.livingroomconversations.org/event/peace-building-90-minute-conversation-w-optional-30-minute-q-a-with-hosts/

Garret Hardin and the extreme right

Posted on August 20, 2019 by Peter

Garret Hardin’s 1968 Science article entitled “The Tragedy of the Commons” has been cited more than 40,000 times. It is appropriately influential, since the problem he analyzed is pervasive and profound. The example of global warming could kill us all, as could the example with which he began his article: the nuclear arms race.

Hardin saw ubiquitous “tragedies,” situations defined by the “solemnity of the relentless working of things,” “the inevitableness of destiny,” and “the futility of escape” (quoting Alfred North Whitehead). That stance provoked Elinor Ostrom and her colleagues to identify solutions. In place of the tragedy of the commons, Ostrom observed a drama that may end as either a comedy or a tragedy, depending on how we act. I find her response to Hardin extraordinarily important.

Several recent articles have explored Hardin’s apparent connection to radical anti-immigration campaigns. These articles have been prompted by the El Paso murderer’s writings (which have environmentalist echoes) plus the recent death of John Tanton, the founder of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Tanton was inspired by Hardin, who served on the FAIR board. See, for example, Matto Mildenberger, “The Tragedy of the Tragedy of the Commons“ (subtitled: “The man who wrote one of environmentalism’s most-cited essays was a racist, eugenicist, nativist and Islamaphobe—plus his argument was wrong”) and Alexander C. Kaufman, “The El Paso Manifesto: Where Racism and Eco-Facism Meet.”

I don’t have extra insights into Hardin and have not directly evaluated the charges in these articles. But I have long wondered about the strange normative claims in the “Tragedy of the Commons” article.

For instance, at one point, Hardin considers whether a system of private property plus legal inheritance is just. He answers that it is not, because “legal possession should be perfectly correlated with biological inheritance–that those who are biologically more fit to be the custodians of property and power should legally inherit more.” Instead, in our system, “an idiot can inherit millions,” which we “must admit” is unjust, although it does help to prevent a tragedy of the commons by protecting property rights (p. 1247).

Hardin says that this conclusion about justice follows from his training as a biologist. But biology cannot demonstrate that the biologically fittest deserve the most property. Biology should not yield normative conclusions at all. From the perspective of science–the study of nature–there is no justice, not even a reason to prefer environmental sustainability over a tragedy of the commons.

One reason that some people try to derive ethics from biology is naturalism: they posit that there can be no truths about right and wrong, only truths about nature that science uncovers. Therefore, we should replace any ethical claims with scientific ones. In my view, this is misguided, but it isn’t necessarily pernicious; plenty of people who hold decent values are naturalists, in this sense of the word.

A different reason is some kind of enthusiasm for Darwinian nature, understood as a realm of power and selection-of-the-fittest, in contrast to our debased societies that coddle the weak. This is not naturalism but evil. Reading “The Tragedy of the Commons” many times, I always assumed that Hardin was a naturalist, but now I wonder if he was at least tinged by evil.

The National Civic Review is Seeking Article Submissions!

Posted on August 20, 2019 by Keiva Hummel

The National Civic Review, an online quarterly published by NCDD member organization the National Civic League, is looking for articles on community-based examples of civic engagement, public deliberation, co-production, and democratic innovation. Articles run between 1200 and 3000 words. Deadlines for submissions are:

Fall 2019 issue September 20, 2019.
Winter 2020 issue December 15, 2019
Spring 2020 Issue March 15, 2019

If you are looking to add your article to the Fall issue of NCR, please make sure you submit by the deadline on Friday, September 20th, which is a little over four weeks from now. Submissions should be emailed to the National Civic Review Editor, Mike McGrath, at mikem@ncl.org. Please also contact Mike is you have any questions in regard to this.

Some of the country’s leading doers and thinkers have contributed articles to this invaluable resource for elected officials, public managers, nonprofit leaders, grassroots activists, and public administration scholars seeking to make America’s communities more inclusive, participatory, innovative, and successful.

Friendly reminder that NCDD members receive the digital copy of the National Civic Review for free! If you are an NCDD member, we highly encourage you to check out the most recent summer edition of the NCR on the National Civic League’s site here. Feel welcome to contact me at keiva@ncdd.org, if you have any trouble logging in with your special NCDD members’ entry code. If you are not an NCDD member yet and want to receive this prestigious journal for free (in addition to many other benefits!), please click here to learn more about joining the NCDD network, as well as, to sign up!

Civic Studies

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