Blog

Cultivating the Habits that Support Democracy

By February 15, 2012

By Terry Chadsey Many years ago I had a formative experience in my own understanding of democracy. I was invited to facilitate a Land Use Task Force public meeting in a community best described as transitioning from rural to suburban. Their last meeting had ended in a fistfight. I began the meeting by playfully talking…

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TPOWS: Media As Mediation

By January 25, 2012

By Evelyn Messinger There has been a flurry of attempts lately to connect the two political movements of our time, Tea Party and Occupy. As a television news producer who often works to expand participatory democracy, this one hits my sweet spot: it’s newsworthy, it’s dialogue, and the way the media report it will really…

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Internet Blackouts, The Republican Primaries, & The Power of Silence

By January 20, 2012

By Pia Infante I’ve been thinking about the power of silence. The successful, wide-spread website blackout and viral organizing of the past week to protest the SOPA bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and PIPA bill in the Senate sends a loud message. These bills have drawn the ire of many in the tech…

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Man Over Time…

By December 14, 2011

By Jill Blair Thanks to Hallmark and all the other companies that generate tools to bring good cheer into our lives, the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas now flow into one another seamlessly. This was not always true. When I was growing up there were much more clearly defined distinctions between Halloween – when goblins…

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Occupy Wall Street: Is the Medium as Important as the Message?

By December 2, 2011

By Matt Leighninger & Bruce L. Mallory As practitioners and students of deliberative democracy for more than a decade, we are intrigued by the tactics of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and by the contrast between these methods and the traditional ways in which governments try to engage citizens. Media commentators speculate on whether the…

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