University of Illinois Funds New Research on Citizens' Role in Public Policy

From Newswise:

"Five research projects at the University of Illinois at Chicago dealing with the citizen’s role in public policy have each received a $20,000 award. The awards, given by the UIC Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, are funding faculty research aimed at improving citizen participation in government services, often through the use of technology."  Read more at the Newswise site.

New Study: People Don't Just Think With Their Guts: Logic Plays a Role, Too

From the 12/29 issue of Science Daily:

"For decades, science has suggested that when people make decisions, they tend to ignore logic and go with the gut. But Wim De Neys, a psychological scientist at the University of Toulouse in France, has a new suggestion: Maybe thinking about logic is also intuitive. He writes about this idea in the January issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science."  Read more about this study

Contented Citizens Vote Against Change

From the March 24 issue of Science Daily:
"US citizens who have a high quality of life are more engaged in the direct democracy process, according to Ryan Yonk from Utah State University and Professor Shauna Reilly from Northern Kentucky University in the US. Their study, looking at the effects of quality of life on voter participation in direct democracy elections, demonstrates that quality of life is a strong predictor of voter turnout."  Read the complete article

Free Thurs Sept 9 Webinar on Painting the Landscape: An Intl Expl of Public-Govt Decision Making

A Practical Insights Webinar
Thursday, 9 September
18:30 Eastern (New York) / 22:30 GMT
Check http://www.WorldTimeServer.com for your respective time zone
Free for Circle Club members

In 2005 the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) and The Charles F. Kettering Foundation began work on a joint research project exploring public-government decision making in seven country/regions of the world: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Canada, Latin America, UK/Western Europe and the United States.

As a result, this monumental effort has provided a unique, cross-cultural perspective of the social, political and institutional dimensions of public participation, at the country and at the regional level.

Join study co-authors Beth Offenbacker and Shareen Springer for an overview of the study and its recently published findings, and an interactive discussion about the potential implications of this landmark work.

Desley Renton, current President of IAP2, will speak briefly about IAP2 and the role of research in its mission. Dr. Lyn Carson, Board Member of IAP2 and Regional Coordinator for Australasia for the IAP2-KF research project team, will participate in the session.

Practical Insights is an occasional PublicDecisions series that showcases new research with practical implications for stakeholder engagement.

About Our Presenters

Dr. Beth Offenbacker is founder and chief learning officer at PublicDecisions.com, which uses social media and other technology to connect people with best practices, emerging trends and leading thinkers in stakeholder engagement through an array of distinctive online programs. She was the coordinator for the IAP2-KF research project from 2005-2010 and co-authored the final project report with Shareen Springer. An award-winning scholar/author, Dr. Offenbacker will be a post-doctoral fellow starting in fall 2010 at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's Center for Public Administration and Policy (CPAP), where she will conduct research on public engagement in the fields of transportation, land use, the environment and health and also carry out engagement projects in these subject areas on the university's behalf for public and nonprofit organizations.

Since 2001, Shareen Springer has worked with a variety of government agencies and nonprofit organizations to establish productive, collaborative partnerships between local governments and the communities impacted by planning and decision-making efforts. Her recent work has focused on supporting active community engagement processes that expand the reach of public involvement efforts to include diverse and nontraditional participations including rural populations, youth and tribal groups through hands-on outreach and strategic visioning efforts. Shareen has worked with a variety of rural and urban communities throughout Oregon, Montana as well as abroad to develop meaningful opportunities for effective community engagement. Shareen holds a Masters degree in Community and Regional Planning as well as a graduate certificate in Not-for-Profit Management from the University of Oregon. She currently works as a consultant with JLA Public Involvement based out of Portland, Oregon.

Learn more and register for this program

Research on Public Participation in Health Policy in High Income Countries

Elsevier has prepared a special virtual resource featuring research articles on Public Participation in Health Policy in High Income Countries from the publication Social Science and Medicine. This is a great compilation of articles in this subject area. (However, please note that unless you have access to an academic library that carries this publication, you will need to pay for copies of the articles.)

Check it out here.

Report: Painting the Landscape: A Cross Cultural Exploration of Public-Govt Decision Making

Here's news about a new research report on public-government decision making from IAP2 and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. 

From IAP2's recent announcement:

Painting The Landscape

A Joint Research Project of IAP2 and The Charles F. Kettering Foundation

"In 2005 the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) and The Charles F. Kettering Foundation began work on a joint research project exploring public-government decision making in seven country/regions of the world: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Canada, Latin America, UK/Western Europe and the United States. 

As a result, this monumental effort has provided those on the research team and both sponsoring organizations with a unique, cross-cultural perspective of the social, political and institutional dimensions of public participation, at the country and at the regional level.  We now are pleased to share these findings with you."

See the report here.

Creating Spaces for Change: Working Toward a “Story of Now” in Civic Engmt, by W.K. Kellogg Fdn

Great new report on the Institute for Local Government website from the WK Kellogg Foundation. According to the site, the "report describes areas of convergence from practitioners of “active civic engagement,” and the differences, so that the people, who advocate, support, or practice civic engagement might better understand one another and decide how to work together more effectively."

"The report draws heavily on the views and experiences of the people who participated in the Kellogg Foundation's Civic Engagement Learning Year and the conference convened by the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and The Democracy Imperative called “No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners." The report looks at the discussions that occurred at those meetings, explains some of the tensions and opportunities facing this emerging field, and provides recommendations for funders and other leaders. Click here to download."

Pathways to Participation Reports available

Pathways to Participation has issued a progress report that may be of interest. The project "explores how and why people get involved and stay involved in different forms of participation over the course of their lives. The research seeks to address a gap in knowledge and understanding of people’s pathways into and through participation, and of the factors that shape their participation over time. The project started in April 2009 and will finish in September 2011."

Learn more about the project and download the progress report.
You can also download a series of briefing papers that summarize key points of the project's popular literature review:

Briefing paper 1: What is participation?
Briefing paper 2: What are the drivers of participation?
Briefing paper 3: Who participates?
Briefing paper 4: Why participate?

Call for Abstracts on Social Justice in Health Educ & Promotion

2010 CALL FOR STUDENT ABSTRACTS: PHEHP Student Awards Committee

The Public Health Education and Health Promotion Section (PHEHP) of the American Public Health Association announces a call for abstracts for a dedicated student poster session at this year's annual meeting being held in Denver, Colorado, November 6-10, 2010.

Eligibility
Student awardees can be active at the doctoral, masters, or undergraduate level. Ten student awardees will be invited to present their work (poster format) at the conference and will receive a certificate for their participation. Students are also eligible for a $50 stipend if all required information is provided.

The student submitter must be the first author. Multiple student authors are acceptable. Faculty members may not be the first author. The student author or an author from the student group must register for and attend the conference to accept the award.

Abstract Topics
Students are encouraged to submit abstracts that relate to the conference theme (Social Justice) as well as other themes related to public health education and health promotion. Abstracts should:

• Demonstrate a student's work on an applied research or evaluation project
• Document a student's (or group of students') community health education or health communication work
• Showcase a student's contribution on a project involving the translation of research.

Review Criteria

• Originality of research endeavor. 
• Does this work represent a new approach or seek to document new information?
• Innovation or level of thought used to develop the research project.
• Quality of methods, such as design applicability, sampling, data collection methods, analysis process, findings, etc.
• Clarity of writing.
• Relevance of the topic to the APHA conference theme and to PHEHP's mission.

Submission Process
Abstracts are limited to 250 words, must include at least two learning objectives, and must be e-mailed by 11:59 p.m. (PDT) on Thursday, April 15, 2010. Please note that all submissions must use the forms below. Abstracts should be completed in 10-12 point Times New Roman font.

All submissions must include:

• Abstract (template below)
• Submission form
• Proof of student status (i.e., letter from advisor)

For more information, visit http://www.apha.org/membergroups/sections/aphasections/phehp/

Quantifying the Value of Engagement: A call for case studies

In this post, we pass on a research request from Edward Andersson of Involve.

Dear Colleague, 

Involve are embarking on an ambitious project with Consumer Focus England, we are seeking to develop an equation for identifying costs and benefits associated with public engagement structures and processes. The proposed equation will be a practical tool, aimed at public sector workers who wish to make the case for effective engagement by exploring and quantifying the costs and benefits. It will also help authorities, civil society and the public to identify when public engagement is an effective use of public money. We need to work with public sector organisations to test our equation, in order to ensure it is useful and that it is able to be applied in a variety of circumstances. 

Do you have a recent example of a public engagement exercise? Would you like to help us with our research whilst having the opportunity to explore the costs and benefits of the exercise to your organisation? We are looking for volunteers to take part in the research. This will involve a number of depth interviews with key people related to the case study. You will gain a better understanding of the costs and benefits of your engagement, a better ability to articulate the business case internally and externally, and (if you so wish) will receive recognition for your support in developing new forms of measurement. 

Specifically we are looking for case studies which: 

• Can demonstrate some tangible improvements in service outcomes as a result of the engagement, for example reduced crime levels, improved health outcomes, lowered bureaucratic requirements, or more targeted spending. 

• Have some understanding of the costs and benefits of the exercise 
• Includes some element of engaging with members of the public 

• Occurred within the last twelve months 

We are also interested in looking at examples which engaged people in issues around cuts in expenditure.

If you so wish we will ensure that interviewees and case studies remain anonymous, we will remove any identifying information from the reports and write‐ups. 

If you think your engagement activity would make a good case study in this research, or if you would like to find out more about the project, please contact Emily Fennell e: emily@involve.org.uk t: 02079206478. 

We hope to hear from you. 

Yours Faithfully

Edward Andersson, Deputy Director ‐ Involve

Public's Role in Developing Technology Policy

A March 2006 article by Jennifer Winter entitled "Public Involvement in Technology Policy: Focus on the Pervasive Computing Environment" provides an interesting review of the public's role in developing technology policy. The paper appeared in Vol. 36, Issue 1 of the Association of Computing Machinery's ACM SIGCAS, a publication that "brings together computer professionals, specialists in other fields, and the public-at-large to address concerns and raise awareness about the ethical and societal impact of computers." You can download a copy of the paper by registering (free) at http://portal.acm.org/portal.cfm.

Abstract:
"This paper examines the role of the general public in informing technology policy, observing that public involvement often occurs only through the electoral process or via feedback after plans have been implemented. Planners and policymakers are not necessarily in touch with the feelings and desires of the public who will be affected by their decisions. For this reason it is important to seek a clearer understanding of the views of citizens who are not typically involved in the planning or design process in order to guide the evolution of technology, as well as to highlight areas where there may be some discrepancy between planners and the needs of everyday users. To broaden the inputs into discussion of emerging problems related to pervasive computing in the State of Hawaii, both information and communication technology specialists (including government policy makers) and members of the general population were invited to participate in a multi-phase study. Differences in perception between specialists and the general public were identified in all phases of research. Specialists were identified as being more focused on near-term issues related to barriers affecting the growth of high-technology industries within the State. Non-specialists showed greater concern for "human" issues, including issues related to the control of technology. Importantly, both groups independently described a need for increased public participation in the process of technological development. Analysis also revealed that both groups found the problem statements generated by non-specialists to be valuable contributions, arguing for their inclusion in the process of problem identification and further supporting the use of participatory planning methods."