Owen Coyle, a friend of over thirty years duration, passed away a week ago and the time since has been filled with memories of political collaborations and stories shared about our other adventures. The collaborations started with sharing the same… Read More »
Author Archives: Dennis Boyer
An Exemplar of Civic Conversation
Posted in Perspectives Tagged civic engagement, conversations, deliberation, democracy, generosity Comments closed
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Decision Horses Before the Deliberative Carts or Overdue Decisions?
A policy dust-up was in the news recently in the form of Congressional action to end the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” stance on gays and lesbians serving in the armed forces. Opponents of ending current discriminatory policies have… Read More »
Managing Anger in Public Discussion
IF public discussions provide participants with opportunities to discuss contrasting policy possibilities in neutral, non-partisan settings. Because these possibilities are meant to be anticipatory of possible policy approaches that allow participants to “re-imagine” how society handles issues, our discussions are… Read More »
Posted in Perspectives Tagged attitude, challenges, citizen discussions, discussion process, facilitation, Public Discussions Comments closed
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Federal mandate to enhance civic discourse?
The Democracy Imperative’s most recent newsletter… Read More » has an interesting write-up detailing a
recent forum exploring how federal policies and programs might be expanded to enhance the
civic skills of American citizens.
Exercising the Civic Muscle
Colleague Jeff Prudhomme and I spent this last weekend in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Central States Communication Association Conference at the invitation of 2009 Summer Institute participant Professor Laura Black. We were there to participate in a “beyond the town… Read More »
Posted in Perspectives Tagged civic engagement, communication skills, discussion process, facilitation, learning by doing, personal development Comments closed
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Adaptations of IF Process in Online Discussions
IF’s policy possibility discussion process was developed with face-to-face meetings in mind. From time to time I have been asked whether or not this process might lend itself to use in web-based discussions or video-conferencing of various types.
IF has… Read More »
Posted in Perspectives Tagged challenges, discussion process, online discussions Comments closed
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Practical Tips for Citizen Discussion of Possibilities: Part III-Managing and Wrapping Up a Discussion
Two previous installments in this practical tips series have attempted to glean wisdom from the facilitators who have led dozens of discussions on IF reports. We have looked at some of the issues involved in putting behinds in the seats… Read More »
Posted in Perspectives Tagged citizen discussions, conceptual possibilities, discussion process, facilitation, Public Discussions Comments closed
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Lessons from Citizens Concerning “Starting Points” in Discussion
IF conducts projects that result in reports containing contrasting policy possibilities so that others may have the benefit of “starting points” in their own discussions of policy areas. Presumably, a helpful report could assist other citizens in getting an initial… Read More »
Posted in Perspectives Tagged citizen discussions, Discussion Reports, Public Discussions Comments closed
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Practical Tips for Citizen Discussion of Possibilities: Part II- Starting the Discussion
In my previous installment on practical tips I looked at recruitment of citizen groups. The who, what, and where of that first step of gathering the bodies exerts considerable influence on how you might want to initiate discussion of policy… Read More »
Posted in Perspectives Tagged citizen discussions, facilitation, Public Discussions Comments closed
Development of Possibilities in “Difficult” Policy Areas
Despite warnings from colleagues and apoplectic reactions from partisans of various stripes, I have been working during the last year to see if it is possible to develop general starting points for discussion of climate change. These efforts first came… Read More »
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