Once you have a basic understanding of the policy possibility---what it says and what it doesn’t---the next step is to understand why someone might actually propose it. In order to do this, you will typically need to go beyond the description of the policy...
Election time is probably the time when people hear and talk about policy the most. So you may feel that you have already heard way too much about policy debates in recent months. And you may feel—just like me—completely disgusted with all the negative campaign...
When Robert Frost was asked ‘What is poetry?’ he replied ‘Poetry is the kind of thing that poets write’. A natural response to such a definition might be a knowing smile and a barrage of questions that try to get at the core of what poetry is or what it might be....
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...
Difference is a fundamental fact of human life. There is similarity too. But difference is the reason why we need to have discussions about public policy. It is also the reason why they should occur face-to-face, over extended periods of time, and with the...
During the last few weeks of my IF course, I have been struggling to understand just how well students are developing discussion and facilitation skills. Even though students have engaged in several weeks of discussion, some members dominate the conversation more...
So much of what goes on under the name of political discussion is aimed at persuading people to accept certain public policies. And so much of what goes on in facilitated public policy discussions is aimed at bringing a group to consensus. This is not the aim of...
Some people think there’s something magical or mystical about IF-style citizen discussions. Others think they’re just plain mysterious. They are none of these things. In fact, they’re a lot like the kind of thing most of us do on our own when faced with...
When people are invited to take part in one of the Interactivity Foundation’s Public Discussions they often wonder what effect this could have if we meet with just a small group of citizens, perhaps just six or seven people, in sessions here or there around the...
The entry below is another story from my colleague Jack Byrd about student experiences with a student-centered discussion class. It might help you think about the ways that discussion facilitation differs from making an oral presentation. You might also think about...