Join TDI, the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and Tufts’ Tisch College for Frontiers of Democracy: Innovations in Civic Practice, Theory, and .... We’ll be looking at three themes:

1.       Engaging—and being engaged by—the online public:  How are online technologies being incorporated into democratic governance and education?

2.       The "neutrality" challenge: Concerns over neutrality challenge educators and practitioners alike. In public life, the question is how to balance the commitment to a politically neutral process with the desire to achieve more equitable outcomes. In the classroom, the question is how to present all perspectives on an issue yet take a definitive stance in an effort to educate for democracy. What are the politics of neutrality, on campus and in public life?

3.       What role is there for innovative theory in civic practice? For example: how might Elinor Ostrom's Nobel-prize-winning research on "common pool resources" help citizens, public officials, and other leaders share the work of sustaining deliberative democracy?

The dates are: Thursday evening, July 21 through Saturday noon-ish, July 23, 2011. This conference follows Peter Levine’s annual Institute of Civic Studies.

TDI will be managing #2 (you can choose any theme that interests you), which was identified at No Better Time as the second most important challenge to the work (after “the language challenge”). If you can come and are interested in helping me shape #2, please zip me an email.

Registration is $120, or $30 for students. We have room for only 130 people, so sign up now! 

Please pass this on.

See you in July, Nancy

_________________________________________

Nancy L. Thomas, JD, EdD

Director, The Democracy Imperative

Senior Associate, Everyday Democracy

(860) 657-9907

http://www.unh.edu/democracy/  

http://www.everyday-democracy.org/en/index.aspx 

Check out Educating for Deliberative Democracy: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118032454,descC...   

and the special higher education Issue of the Journal of Public Deliberation: http://services.bepress.com/jpd/vol6/iss1/ .