Category: civic engagement
-
About Wicked Problems
Yesterday I gave a presentation introducing a new discussion guide designed to help people deliberate over the issue of childhood drinking. I am happy to say the event went very well and there were a lot of people in attendance (more than 125, by my count). I opened the talk with a discussion of wicked…
-
New Discussion Guide: Conversations On Underage Drinking In Communities
Today I am giving a presentation at the release of a new community discussion guide that I am excited about. It is a collaboration between the National Issues Forums and The Leadership Foundation To Keep Children Alcohol Free, which is an organization made up of spouses of governors and former governors. The discussion guide is…
-
How Social Media May Affect Civic Life
Next week I will be talking to a group of civic participation experts about social media and how it may (or may not be) affecting democracy, dialog, and deliberation. I began to put my thoughts together in a series of bullet points and it rapidly became an outline for a longer paper. I thought I…
-
Obama Administration Falls Short In Civic Participation
My latest article on my blog at the Washington Times Communities, Public Square Today, is now live: Obama Administration Falls Short On Civic Participation On the morning of President Obama’s first State of the Union address, I published a rather dispirited prediction for the talk. One commenter asked me: I am very downhearted at how…
-
Peter Levine On The Problems And The Solutions
My friend Peter Levine is, in my estimation, the gold standard when it comes to blogging about civic engagement in general and youth civic engagement in particular. His content stream includes a terrific combination of big-think ideas, small observations, and off-topic seasoning to make sure it all holds our interest. When I started blogging in…
-
White House Issues Open Government Directive
Much has been written about the Obama administration’s early commitment to create a more open and transparent government. In May the White House announced the Open Government Initiative, whose mission is to make all of government more open. Yesterday, in a move watched closely by many in the civic participation field, the administration released the…
-
Poll: Veterans Ready To Serve On The Home Front
A new survey shows Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are ready to serve their communities, but face roadblocks.
-
Framework For Deliberating About Childhood Drinking
I have been working on a project with a number of collaborators to create an issue guide for communities to deliberate on the issue of childhood drinking. Our framework is in an early-draft state, but it is gettting better with each iteration. (By “better,” I mean that it will stimulate dialogue.) In preparation for a…
-
A Vision For Civic Life
Recently, for various reasons, I’ve been going through my old folders and documents. At various times in my life I’ve toyed with the idea of establishing an institute or center devoted to improving civic life. I’m glad to be able to say that just about all my work over the last decade has been in…
Brad Rourke 