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1 | New Book: Deliberative Democracy and the Plural Polity
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When we think of politics in pluralistic societies, argues Professor Michael Rabinder James of Bucknell University, two types of issues come to mind. On the one hand, controversies over affirmative action, race-conscious districting, and racial stereotypes in the media raise questions of justice. On the other hand, secessionist wars in the former Yugoslavia, religious violence in India, and race riots in American cities prompt questions about stability. But while both types of questions are crucial to resolving problems in pluralistic societies, few scholars integrate them in developing models for a just and stable multicultural policy.

In his forthcoming work, Michael Rabinder James integrates questions of justice and stability through a model of deliberative democracy in the plural polity. Drawing on empirical social science and normative political philosophy, James develops a framework for assessing democratic institutions according to three broad concerns: do they realize deliberative fairness in their decision-making procedures; can they flexibly respond to emerging and shifting collective identities; and are they able to mitigate group conflict?

Read a full review of the book at www.kansaspress.ku.edu/jamdel.html

2 | New Paper: Reconstructing the Concept of Democratic Deliberation -- -----------------------
The problem of democratic governance, writes Shawn Rosenberg of the Center for the Study of Democracy at UC Irvine, is conceived as one of crafting institutions that facilitate collective decision-making in a manner consistent with fundamental values around conceptions of rights and equality, and thus with the common good. Beyond this quite general orientation, significant divergence begins to emerge over how individuals are conceptualized and consequently over how autonomy and equality should be defined. Division over how best to institutionalize democratic governance follows, the author argues.

This recent paper (April, 2004) briefly sketches the deliberative position, then critically considers the adequacy of its conception of the individual and o ffers an alternative view of cognition, emotion and communication. The author concludes by presenting the implications of this alternative for the understanding of the democratic values of autonomy and equality and for the conception of democratic procedure.

Download the paper at www.repositories.cdlib.org.

3 | New Book: Deep Democracy
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What happens when you take the tools of dialogue, systems thinking, learning communities, presencing, and profound change, and apply them to civic engagement? The result, observes University of Texas Community and Urban Planning Professor Patricia Wilson, is "deep democracy" an organizing principle based on the transformation of separation to interconnectedness in the civic arena. Deep democracy is not what elected representatives do, nor experts, nor large public institutions, nor voters. At its essence, deep democracy is the inner experience of interconnectedness.

Dr. Wilson's ideas will be fully explored in her forthcoming book, "Deep Democracy." View a summary article at www.shambhalainstitute.org

4 | Talk Energy Creates Community Focused on Energy Issues
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he Canadian firm Talk Energy has created a blog-like community for the discussion of energy production and consumption issues. The site is billed as a place where people can learn, teach, build real relationships, create solutions and share a passion for how nations use energy. Officially launched just over two months ago, the site has attracted attention from a wide range of people, including engineers, inventors, business owners and individuals interested in energy.

For non profits Talk Energy is providing member collaboration software and hosting- free of charge. Participating non-profits can sign up to Talk Energy as a partner and a special section of the community with its conversations and tools (calendar, polls) will become dedicated to that organization.

Visit Talk Energy on the web at www.talkenergy.com

For more information, please contact Darrin Mitchell, President, Talk Energy (902) 888-2030 or darrin@talkenergy.com

5 | North American Summit on Citizen Engagement
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This Summit is designed to foster and support leadership for meaningful citizen engagement, and to inspire practitioners, decision-makers, media and academics interested in the best practices of public participation.

It will be co-chaired by Angus Reid and Kristi Wells this November 10, 11 and 12, 2004 at the Chateau Fairmont, Whistler, British Columbia and in conjunction with Cornucopia, Whistler s International Wine Festival. Confirmed are Carolyn Lukensmeyer from AmericaSpeaks, Steve Rosell from Viewpoint Learning, Dave Biggs from Envision Tools and Laval University professor Pierre-Gerlier Forest who currently holds the Cameron Chair at Health Canada. Also featured will be the leadership demonstrated in North America s first Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Full details and early registration will be posted on the Whistler Forum website www.whistlerforum.com on June 1st, 2004. For further information contact William Robert at 604-938-9132.

6 | 2004 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation
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The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation's 2004 conference will take place at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, October 23rd through the 25th, followed by a day of post-conference training on the 26th. NCDD just announced the 12 post-conference trainings that have been selected.

NCDD's post-conference lineup features facilitators like Hal Saunders and Jesus Trevino; leading organizations like National Issues Forums, the Study Circles Resource Center and the Public Conversations Project; trainings in Dynamic Facilitation and Bohm Dialogue; and current issues like Spiral Dynamics.

Visit NCDDs website at www.thataway.org/conference/2004/ for the full conference listing.

7 | Lockhaven Democracy Lab Course Finds Success, Growth
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In Democracy Lab s inaugural semester, over 300 students from around the US completed NIF-style deliberative forums as part of their coursework. From February 2 through April 17, students discussed issues assigned by instructors in 25 small groups using asynchronous bulletin boards.

For fall 2004, instructors will have five issues to choose from: Americans Role in the World, Three American Futures, Racial and Ethnic Tensions, News Media and Society, and Examining Health Care. Over 20 colleges and universities are expected to participate, with several fielding student civic leadership teams for the first time. Opportunities for high schools are also anticipated.

Full details are available at www.teachingdemocracy.org (Click on Democracy Lab). Reservations for fall courses will be accepted through June.

8 | " Creative Democracy" Conference
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The Mary Parker Follett Conversation on Creative Democracy (October 21-24 Boise, Idaho, USA) has proposed four Research Conversation Teams. These teams have been proposed by conference participants and are open for participation. Conference organizers recommend that participants join one of these teams during the preparatory phase if you plan to attend the Follett Conversation.

Research Teams include: Team A: Education for Full Participation in a Democracy
Team B: Social Justice Through Literacy
Team C: Imagining a Creative America - A Performance and Town Meeting
Team D: Envisioning an Iraqi Model of Democracy.

More information is available online on the Follett Foundation website, www.follettfoundation.org.

9 | Northern California to Host Dialogue and Deliberation Conference
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The First Annual Northern California Dialogue & Deliberation Conference, a one-day gathering, will occur at Notre Dame de Namur University, in Belmont, CA Friday, June 11, 2004 from 9:00-5:00. Northern California's leaders, facilitators, practitioners and participants in the growing fields of dialogue and deliberation will spend time:

-Defining and clarifying our work and our field
-Building knowledge and sharing information
-Enhancing practitioners' skills
-Meeting and getting to know our colleagues in the field
-Exploring opportunities to initiate collaborative projects.

To learn more about the conference and to register, visit www.pcrcweb.org/conference or contact Katie Howard by email khoward@pcrcweb.org or phone 650-373-3490.

10 | New Graduate-level Certificate Program In Dialogue, Deliberation, and Public Engagement
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Fielding Graduate Institute is offering an innovative, new certificate course, "Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement." This distinctive program focuses on recent innovations in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement and features faculty who have played key roles in developing these approaches. The program is being designed and delivered in collaboration with the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue.

In addition to an outstanding core faculty of scholar-practitioners (e.g. Hal Saunders and Barnett Pearce, the program also features guests in Master Dialogues who are widely recognized as scholars and as innovative practitioners (e.g. Carolyn Lukensmeyer, and Juanita Brown). The Fielding program combines scholarly understanding of different approaches to dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement with practical, hands-on applications. The 16-week course begins in September 2004.

For more information, visit the program website at www.fielding.edu/hod/ce/dialog/

11 | Fifth International Restorative Practices Forum
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The International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) will hold the second in a series of three conferences dedicated to the theme of Building a Global Alliance for Restorative Practices and Family Empowerment, August 5-7, 2004, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This will be the IIRP's Fifth International Conference on Conferencing, Circles and other Restorative Practices, bringing together social workers, probation officers, police, teachers, administrators, researchers, criminologists, counselors, peacemakers, academicians, judges, public planners, corrections officers and others.

The IIRP seeks to strengthen the potential for meaningful change in modern society. At a previous IIRP conference, John Braithwaite, of the Australian National University said, Democracy is becoming more shallow in its meaning for human lives. The lived experience of modern democracy is alienation. The feeling is that elites run things, that we do not have a say in any meaningful sense. The conference runs from Thursday, August 5 to Saturday, August 7 and is preceded by pre-conference workshops, from Monday, August 2 to Wednesday, August 4.

For more information visit www.restorativepractices.org/bco4

12 | Communication and Democracy: Technology and Citizen Engagement
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The purpose of this colloquium, hosted by the University of New Brunswick August 4-6, 2004, is to reflect on the core issues of communications, democracy and citizen engagement and to push the margins of thinking and debate around entry points such as methodologies, social practices, theoretical frameworks, technical design, institutional relations and citizen needs. It will bring together up-and-coming researchers and established experts to exchange ideas about current research and theories - and rethink the ways forward. Presentations can be based on local, national or international research.

To facilitate open discussion and full involvement all sessions will be plenary. Central themes for panels (papers) include, but are not restricted to: -Technology R&D and Citizen Needs -Research Methodologies -Citizen Engagement and E-Democracy

More information online at www.unb.ca/technocitizen/

13 | Democracy Wiki: Facilitating Convergence Amongst Movements?
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The developers of betterdemocracy.org have created a wiki as "first among other future projects," to help synergize convergence among global intiatives to improve democracy. The site will eventually contain other goodies such as ab "open" journal for Better Democracy and Economic Justice.

A wiki is a collaborative website in which every visitor can freely create and edit content through any browser. Wikis are unusual among group communication mechanisms in that they allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself. Site developers believe that freely allowing visitors to create and edit any page in a web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.

Visit and contribute to the wiki at www.betterdemocracy.org

14 | Western Australia Innovations in Democracy and Consultation
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Several important milestones in Western Australia's pursuit of strong democracy will occur in the next couple of months:

- The Citizenship Strategy, "A Voice for All: Strengthening Democracy" is in its final drafting process. It will be launched by the Premier, The Hon Geoff Gallop, MLA on Monday 24 May 2004 in Geraldton. Enquiries bacitizen@dpc.wa.gov.au

- "Consulting Citizens: Lessons in Practice" on Tuesday 25 May 2004, following the launch of the Citizenship Strategy, there will be a half-day seminar in Geraldton. For more information contact the Citizens and Civics Unit bacitzen@dpc,wa.gov.au

- A Citizens breakfast will be held at the WA Museum on 7 June 2004. At the breakfast, His Excellency, Lt General, Governor Sanderson will respond to the WA Citizenship Strategy.

- Western Australians are invited to register their interest in attending the launch by sending in the coupons that will appear in The West Australian on the 17, 19, and 21 May. For more information: Shona Dodds, Citizens and Civics Unit, 9222 9431 or Linda Bolton, Celebrate WA, 9220 1808