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Reaching for Common
Ground: Public Decision Making through Deliberative Forums
Do you hear stories of angry, frustrated
citizens who feel they have little power to influence important
decisions affecting their lives? Politicians and media spokes
persons often reassure themselves by characterizing citizen frustration
as intolerance, ignorance or even apathy, instead of looking deeper
at the desire of regular people to express their views on public
issues but believing they do not have a venue to do so.
Making choices about how to deal
with community issues is difficult because different people favor
different approaches, and the options for action may contradict
or conflict with one another. The common public problems that
confront families and communities can best be understood and addressed
by the citizens themselves deliberating together. Public deliberation
is a means to evaluate consequences of various options, understand
the views of others, and find a shared sense of direction---common
ground for action. This workshop will introduce the concept of
public deliberation and how public deliberation can be used to
address challenging community problems.
Participants will learn to:
- Deliberate rather than debate
or just discuss important controversial issues
- Develop public understanding
and knowledge about issues
- Convene, moderate and record
deliberative forums using NIF materials
- Report outcomes of deliberative
forums
- Connect with office holders
- Stimulate public action
- Create common ground for action
- Renée Daugherty, Oklahoma
State University
- Linda Hoke, Southern Growth
Policies Board
- Sue Williams, Oklahoma
State University
- Hank Cothran, University
of Florida
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