You know how you sometimes feel as though you’ve got just the answer to a question or the right description for something—only 10 minutes or a half hour too late? That happened to me last week, just after I’d finished… Read More »
Author Archives: Adolf Gundersen
Some Limitations of Current Democratic Discussion*
Americans are privileged to enjoy perhaps the world’s strongest legal safeguards on the freedoms of speech, press, and assembly. Yet as undeniably important as these safeguards might be, they do not by themselves ensure either widespread or robust democratic discussion. … Read More »
Posted in Perspectives Tagged democratic discussion, information, limitations, limits, participation, public discussion Leave a comment
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Democratic Discussion, Public Discussion, and the Policy-Making Process*
Conventional views of the policy-making process are helpful–as far as they go. But they usually leave out a good deal, especially with respect to the potential role of democratic discussion. Consider, for example:
Emotions, habits, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, norms, concepts,… Read More »
Posted in Perspectives Tagged policy-making process, public discussion, purpose, usefulness Leave a comment
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Public Discussion of Possible Practical Consequences—Testing*
A third alternative to thinking about public discussion as debate or as the immediate prelude to decision-making is to understand it as a means of testing contrasting conceptual possibilities. Testing of contrasting conceptual possibilities—whether these have been developed in sanctuary… Read More »
Posted in Education, Perspectives Tagged choice, consequences, prediction, public discussion, statistics, testing Leave a comment
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Public Discussion of Contrasting Conceptual Possibilities*
IF’s public discussions typically move from exploration of an area of concern to exploring and developing contrasting conceptual possibilities for addressing it.
The purposes of exploring and developing contrasting conceptual possibilities. Public discussion of contrasting conceptual possibilities serves the immediate… Read More »
Public Discussion of an Area of Concern*
Citizen dialogue and decision-making processes can take many forms, depending on the objectives of participants, their place in the policy-making process, and the constraints within which they are working. Still, citizen dialogue continues to be thought of almost exclusively in… Read More »
Area of Concern*
Rather than issues or problems, IF public discussions focus on what we generally refer to as an “area of concern.” This isn’t a mysterious label, but it is meant to signal one of the distinctions between IF’s approach and that… Read More »
Facilitating for Democratic Discussion
IF’s mission is to “promote and enhance democratic discussion.” Not just any discussion, but democratic discussion. IF’s facilitators have a significant role to play in achieving this core aspect of IF’s mission—both before and during public discussions.
Before IF’s public… Read More »
The Uses of Humor in the IF Discussion Process
IF discussions are serious business. But they still allow room for humor. In fact, the more of them I facilitate, the more I’ve come to appreciate the many ways humor can promote good exploratory discussion. (Surely humor can go wrong… Read More »
In Public Discussions, Look First at the Forest, Then at the Trees
IF’s public discussions routinely begin with an exploration of the concerns relating to the topic at hand. Discussants then move on to explore various conceptual possibilities for addressing those concerns.
There are various schools of thought among IF facilitators about… Read More »
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