Public engagement, along with public opinion research, is at the heart of Public Agenda's work. But like most professionals, we like to take a step back and study and share what we've learned about the practice and science of our work, and consider new tools to use and frontiers to cross.
That's essentially the purpose of the Center for Advances in Public Engagement (CAPE), the academic arm of our public engagement team. CAPE is at the forefront of efforts to research, develop and disseminate new insights and best practices that help improve the quality of American public life by building the field of public engagement and citizen-centered politics.
The field of public engagement is growing rapidly, with many new organizations and methods emerging each year. As Public Agenda works in the field with the latest of those tools – from web sites and Twitter to asset mapping and the virtual world of Second Life – we at CAPE study their use and share our findings with new publications each year on various aspects of public engagement. If you are interested in donating to support the efforts of CAPE, please visit our donation page.
All of our publications are available for download free of charge. Major support for CAPE has been provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. CAPE products have also been developed through work done in collaboration with the Kettering Foundation.
CAPE Publications
CLICK TO ENGAGE: USING KEYPADS TO ENHANCE DELIBERATION
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the use of keypads as part of well-constructed engagement and deliberation processes. We are particularly focused on the use of keypads to support deliberative forums and meetings tied to collaborative problem solving.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AT PUBLIC AGENDA
Public Agenda employs engagement strategies and tools in such a way that they help citizens and communities tackle tough issues like improving education, managing sprawl or bettering police-community relations.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
A Primer from Public Agenda
In this document Public Agenda offers a brief summary of the essential elements of our evolving approach to public engagement.
REFRAMING "FRAMING"
What if we were to reframe framing to focus less on how it can help one side or another win the political game and more on what it means, and can mean, for strengthening the democratic process?
TRANSFORMING PUBLIC LIFE
A Decade of Citizen Engagement in Bridgeport, Connecticut
As a result of roughly a decade of hard work by organizations, "ordinary" citizens and various local leaders, public engagement has become embedded in the life of Bridgeport, CT.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND AMERICA'S GROWING LATINO POPULATION
Understanding the barriers to, and opportunities for, more empowered participation of Latino populations is a pressing need facing advocates of deliberative democracy.
BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND
A Call for Goal-Driven Deliberative Practice
Public Agenda teams up with Martín Carcasson from the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University to disseminate his latest thinking about the goals and consequences of public deliberation.
PROMISING PRACTICES IN ONLINE ENGAGEMENT
The fact that the Internet is one of the most powerful organizing tools in history is both thrilling and vexing to public engagement practitioners working to create the conditions for more effective public involvement in public life.
BEYOND DEBATE
Impacts of Deliberative Issue Framing on Group Dialogue and Problem Solving
The research summarized in this article was conducted in order to gain a deeper understanding of one key element of these proper conditions: framing issues for deliberation.
DEMOCRACY, GROWING UP
The Shifts That Reshaped Local Politics and Foreshadowed the 2008 Presidential Election
In this report, Matt Leighninger summarizes and updates his main arguments on the larger patterns in the many strands of the deliberative democracy movement that have been emerging in recent years.