A Green Grassroots Revolution

Bill McAuliffe. Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, April 22, 2007.

Nan Skelton at the University of Minnesota brought this article to our attention, which she says is a great local story that shows the Mayors in St. Paul and Minneapolis beginning to make the paradigm shift to a culture of citizen-government partnership. The subtitle of this article is "It's called global warming, but cities and towns, including the Twin Cities, are waging the war."

Resource Link: http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1137316.html

Advancing Liberal Education: Assessment Practices on Campus

Michael Ferguson. Association of American Colleges & Universities.

This short publication presents the stories of six different colleges and universities that have developed innovative programs to advance and assess key liberal education outcomes. Originally written for AAC&U News, these stories--which focus on writing, information literacy, understanding of diversity, critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, and civic engagement--offer models for effective assessment practices. Also included is information about finding additional assessment resources.

Resource Link: http://aacu-secure.nisgroup.com/acb/stores/1/product1.cfm?SID=1&Product_ID=95

Boston Prochoice and Prolife Leaders Dialogue

The Public Conversations Project.

Read about PCP's groundbreaking 7-year abortion dialogue involving pro-choice and pro-life leaders in the Boston area. PCP has been doing dialogue work with Prochoice and Prolife activists and others since 1989.

Resource Link: http://www.publicconversations.org/pcp/resource_details.php?ref_id=97

Case Study 2 - Porto Alegre, Brazil: Participatory Approaches in Budgeting and Public Expenditure Management

World Bank / World Bank and Participation / Participation Sourcebook, 2003.

This 5-page case study presents a broad review of an experience in Participatory Budgeting introduced by the Workers Party (PT) in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, as part of their agenda of deepening democracy through ?“popular administration?” of government. Having won several municipal elections in 1989, including Sao Paulo with over 10 million people, the PT began a creative experiment of engaging a wide spectrum of people to formulate city budgets. The Porto Alegre case in particular, having been nominated by the 1996 UN Summit on Human Settlements in Istanbul as an exemplary ?‘urban innovation?’, has stood out for demonstrating an efficient practice of democratic resource management.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/PortoAllegra_Case.pdf

Case Study of the Danish Board of Technology

Sandy Heierbacher. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2003.

The Board of Technology was established by the Danish Parliament in 1986 to help ensure that technology decisions are made wisely. In its assessments of technology issues, the Board makes use of expert knowledge as well as the insight and experience of non-expert citizens. Armed with this knowledge, the Board of Technology is able to serve as an independent source of high-quality advice and assessment to the Parliament regarding technology issues. The Board of Technology also encourages decision-makers and citizens to engage in informed debate and discussion about technology issues.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Danish_Board_case.doc

Case Study of the Fernald, Ohio Citizens Advisory Board

Sandy Heierbacher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003.

FCAB provides advice to the U.S. Department of Energy on issues pertaining to the remediation (clean-up) of the DOE site in Fernald, Ohio. The site was used to produce uranium for nuclear weapons from 1951 to 1989, during which time over one million pounds of uranium were released into the surrounding environment. FCAB recommendations and advice provide the DOE with an understanding of the issues and concerns that are important to local stakeholders and ensure that these perspectives influence activities pertaining to the clean-up and future use of the Fernald site.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Fernald_case.doc

Case Study of the Health Effects Institute

Sandy Heierbacher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003.

HEI is an independent, nonprofit corporation chartered in 1980 to provide high-quality, impartial and relevant scientific information on the health effects of emissions from motor vehicles and other sources of environmental pollution. HEI is funded equally by the EPA and the motor vehicle industry. Although not a public participation program, HEI was examined because of its ability to remain neutral, retain the respect of all stakeholders, and produce high-quality research findings on the health effects of a variety of pollutants.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Health_Effects_Inst_case.doc

Case Study of the Kentucky Center for Public Issues

Sandy Heierbacher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003.

KCPI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy organization based in Frankfort, Kentucky?’s capital. KCPI?’s mission is to help citizens explore, understand and confront issues critical to the future of Kentucky. Among other things, KCPI runs Policy Councils, which involve a diverse group of experts and interested citizens from all parts of the state to consider and, if appropriate, propose improvements in public policies. Policy Councils study a specific contentious issue in depth, obtain public input and raise public awareness about the issue, arrive at a consensus about the issue when possible, and sometimes take action on their findings.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/KCPI_case.doc

Case Study of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council

Sandy Heierbacher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003.

NEJAC was created in 1993 as a part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency?’s Office of Environmental Justice. NEJAC helps the OEJ address environmental justice issues and integrate environmental justice into the EPA?’s policies, programs and activities. It does this by bringing community, industry and state/local government groups together to find solutions to environmental justice problems and by providing the EPA with independent advice and recommendations on matters related to environmental justice.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/NEJAC_case.doc

Changing the Conversation on Education in Connecticut

Will Friedman. Public Agenda, 2004.

A report on 10 years of public engagement on public education topics in over 75 communities across Connecticut. Supported by the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, the report serves as a comprehensive case study of how public engagement can work in communities across America and discusses the specific accomplishments in Connecticut.

Resource Link: http://www.publicagenda.org/pubengage/pdfs/connecticut_public_engagement_2005.pdf

Citizens and Public Deliberation Workshop

A collaborative project of the Council on Public Policy Education (CPPE), the Inter American Foundation (IAF), and the Inter-American Democracy Network (IADN). Kettering Foundation, 2003.

The 10 initiatives (case studies) represented here present a great opportunity for learning. In varying ways they reflect the shared view that long-run economic well-being in a community is critically affected by the qualities of the practices through which decisions on issues related to economic performance are made. Thus the community itself can be seen as an economic resource. If so, local development projects, aside from their inherent merits, can be seen as catalysts for the long-term development of civic decision-making capacity. This document also serves as a schedule for the Citizens and Public Deliberation Workshop at the Kettering Foundation.

Resource Link: http://www.publicpolicy-educouncil.org/pdf/CPD_W-shop_English_9_3.pdf

Collaborative Governance in the CALFED Program: Adaptive Policy Making for California Water

Judith E. Innes, Sarah Connick, Laura Kaplan, and David E. Booher.

A new, collaborative model of governance has emerged in the CALFED program, which manages much of California's vast water system. This model emerged out of many years of dialogue among the state's major stakeholders and public agency leaders frustrated by the inability of traditional governance by the three branches - executive, legislative and judicial - to establish significant policy to address the competing needs of the environment and urban and agricultural water users. This paper reports on our research into the history, logic, and workings of this evolving program from its inception as an informal memorandum among agencies in 1994 to its 2004 incarnation with a formal, legislatively established oversight authority.

Resource Link: http://www.csus.edu/ccp/publications/WP-2006-01.pdf

Collective Decision Making Around the World

Ileana Marin. Kettering Foundation, 2006.

Is public deliberation rare? How widespread has it been? Are deliberation?’s organic practices at the very core of collective decision making? Did it exist before governments developed? The case studies included in Collective Decision Making Around the World begin to answer these questions. The research suggests, rather paradoxically, that deliberation may have been widespread throughout the world and throughout history. Taken as a whole, the case studies also show that deliberation is both fragile and powerful. It can be destroyed by top-down politics, but like a sturdy plant, if eradicated in one area, it reseeds itself in another.

Resource Link: http://www.kettering.org/readingroom/pub_detail.aspx?pubID=&catID=22&itemID=2560

Consensus Statement and Survey for Wise Democracy Victoria II

The statements in this survey were formulated by local residents who agreed to meet as a Wisdom Council for Victoria on June 22-23, 2007. Wisdom Councils create consensus statements which are presented to the public or an institution in a public meeting. The public meeting starts a discussion that engages the broader community. In order to gauge the public's level of agreement with the Wisdom Council's statements, an online Opinionnaire® (a tool being demonstrated for this event by the Forum Foundation) is being used to reveal degrees of consensus for those who participate. We are posting the contents of the survey as a great example of two dialogue and deliberation organizations combining their assets to help promote, evaluate, and further a D&D program.

Resource Link: http://opn.forumfoundation.org/index.php?pid=30

Creating Social Capital Through the Deliberative Discussion: A Case Study of Community Dialogue

David Stein, Susan Imel, and Thyrone Henderson. Presented at the Midwest Research-to-Practice Conference in Adult, Continuing, and Community Education, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, October 6-8, 2004.

When citizens come together to inquire about issues that matter to the community, learning may occur in these temporary learning communities. Active engagement with issues of social and political importance may increase the adult's sense of commitment to action and further the development of a community's social capital. Using a social capital development framework, this case describes one community's attempt to promote and encourage citizens to engage in deliberative discussion. The case also highlights one citizen's struggle to link discourse with community action.

Resource Link: http://www.iupui.edu/~adulted/mwr2p/program/Proceedings/SteinImelHenderson.pdf

D&D Success Stories

Compiled by the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), 2005.

Below are dozens of links to dialogue and deliberation success stories and case studies that are available online. Approaches covered include Deliberative Polling, Citizens Juries, Future Search, National Issues Forums, Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue, AmericaSpeaks, Study Circles, the Public Conversations Project, and Wisdom Councils. NCDD has been compiling these resources for the D&D community for several years, but we could really use your help keeping this page updated. Email us at [email protected] with your additions and changes.

Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright. Verso Press, 2003.

This book presents case studies which demonstrate how people are inventing new political forms that realize the deeper democratic ideal of government of, by and for the people. The four contemporary cases explore the participatory budgeting process in Porto Alegre; decentralized school councils and community policing groups in Chicago; stakeholder planning in environmental protection and habitat management; and new participatory governance structures in Kerala, India.

Resource Link: http://www.archonfung.net

Defining Community Capacity: A Framework and Implications from a Comprehensive Community Initiative

Robert Chaskin. Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, 1999.

Comprehensive community building efforts in Hartford and Milwaukee illustrate the ambiguities of defining the elements of community capacity and how they operate on the ground to create positive community change.

Resource Link: http://www.chapinhall.org/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1291&L2=63&L3=108

Democracy in Practice: Public Participation in Environmental Decisions

Thomas C. Beierle and Jerry Cayford. Resources for the Future Press, Washington, 2003.

A study of 239 case studies to identify key approaches to public participation. Context is also considered and the authors find that participation method is more critical than context. They identify 5 social goals that make for successful public participation events: (i) incorporating public values into decisions; (2) improving the substantive quality of decisions; (3) resolving conflict among competing interests; (4) building trust in institutions; and (5) educating and informing the public.

Resource Link: http://www.rff.org/rff_press/bookdetail.cfm?bookdetail=othertopic&outputid=2882

Democratic Dilemmas: Joint Work, Education Politics, and Community

Julie A. Marsh. SUNY Press (SUNY series, School Districts: Research, Policy, and Reform), 2007.

This 228-page book written by policy researcher Julie Marsh explores ways to engage citizens in the process of educational improvement. The book highlights the inherent tensions of deliberative democracy, competing notions of representation, limitations of current conceptions of educational accountability, and the foundational importance of trust to democracy and education reform. It further provides a framework for improving community-educator collaboration and lessons for policy and practice.

Resource Link: http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61456