Facilitating Democracy: Centers and Institutes of Public Deliberation and Collaborative Problem Solving

Autor/in	Carcasson, Martin
Titel	Facilitating Democracy: Centers and Institutes of Public Deliberation and Collaborative Problem Solving
Quelle	In: New Directions for Higher Education, (2010) 152, S.51-57 (7 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0271-0560
DOI	10.1002/he.412
Schlagwörter	Democracy; Citizen Participation; Problem Solving; School Districts; Cooperation; School Closing; School Community Relationship; Discussion Groups; Governance; Community Organizations; Network Analysis; Communications; Universities; Higher Education; Research; Colorado + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Demokratie; 'Citizen participation; Citizens'' participation'; Bürgerbeteiligung; Problemlösen; School district; Schulbezirk; Co-operation; Kooperation; School closings; Schule; Schließung; Schließung (von Schulen); Education; Educational policy; Financing; Steuerung; Bildung; Erziehung; Bildungspolitik; Finanzierung; Netzplantechnik; Nachrichtenwesen; University; Universität; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Forschung
Abstract	Facing significant budget deficits and stagnant enrollments, a local school district realized that they would likely need to close some schools, which is always a difficult issue for communities to consider. The school district, hoping to find a way to have a productive community conversation about this difficult issue, turned to a local, nonpartisan university-based organization to help examine the situation from an impartial, third-party perspective, and then design, facilitate, and report on a public participation process. The organization utilized students throughout the process, including as facilitators of small group discussions during each of three large public meetings. In the end, the public engaged a difficult issue much more productively, the school district gained high-quality public input, students had an opportunity to gain valuable experience and sharpen their twenty-first century skills in a "real-world" situation, faculty researchers learned useful lessons about collaborative problem solving and deliberative practice, and the university bolstered its value to the community. Projects such as these are happening more and more across the country in recent years. The continued development and maturation of campus-based centers and institutes tied to deliberative democracy, such as those that are a part of the National Issues Forum network and the University Network for Collaborative Governance (UNCG), represents a phenomenon that holds great promise to provide communities with the necessary capacity to spark and sustain productive collaborative problem solving. Such centers can serve as critical "hubs" of democracy that provide the necessary impartial resources and process expertise to connect experts, institutional decision makers, and the public in ways that democracy currently sorely lacks, but clearly requires to function well. This chapter provides an introduction to these centers, an overview of the two networks, and a summary of the type of work they do. (Contains 1 figure.) (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10