Civil War Or Civil Discussion: On the Ground in Chicago & Detroit

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This episode: In part 1, Maya Lea discusses the 2019 Chicago Community Discussion Project, where everyday people set the media agenda for the next local election. In part 2, Elaine Bassett talks about empowering first-generation college students in Detroit.

About the Civil War Or Civil Discussion podcast:

Join Interactivity Foundation fellows and guests for insights on how to have better conversations about public policy and public life.

About the Interactivity Foundation:

The health of our democracy depends greatly on how well citizens discuss, explore, and develop public policy.  Ideally, public policy choices will be based on citizens’ and policymakers’ careful consideration of reasonable alternatives and their likely consequences. Increasingly, in the real world, however, policy choices are made in response to crisis or in highly-charged political contexts. Frequently the opportunity for the development or
consideration of meaningful citizen input is negligible, and the considered policy options are similarly underdeveloped and limited to a split-the-difference or the lesser of two evils approach.

In response to these challenges, the mission of the Interactivity Foundation (IF) is to enhance the process and expand the scope of our public discussions, thereby improving the health of our democracy and its development of public policy. That is, IF works to improve both the quality and quantity of the public discussions that shape the development of our public policy options. To do this, we’ve developed a small-group discussion process designed to help people collaborate in the exploration and development of a) the diverse concerns and values that relate to an area of societal concern, (b) multiple contrasting policy possibilities to address those concerns, and (c) the possible implementations and consequences of those policy possibilities. For more information check out: http://www.interactivityfoundation.org/