Ceasar McDowell, professor of the practice of civic design at MIT and associate head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, notes that we find ourselves in the most demographically complex set of people who have ever lived together. Unfortunately, we have neither the infrastructure nor the processes in place to support this kind of a diverse public so that it can do what it needs to for democracy to work.
When the public is not engaged from the very beginning, they won't be invested in the work of government. Both the organizers and those participating suffer from the trauma of "bad" public processes.
In this episode of ICYMI, McDowell discusses a “civic design framework” (the six conversations the public needs to be involved in), the need to design new systems to replace those originally designed to exclude people and the goal of creating a system that flows from intimate conversations to the decision-making process while keeping the integrity of the public voice and experience along the way.
LEARN MORE
Visit the MIT Center for Constructive Communication.
Read about the movement to rebuild our public's muscle for democracy via We Who Engage.
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