Dear readers, September has come and gone, and for some of us in the northern hemisphere leaves begin their slow burn passage from green to red. Apologies for the tardiness in getting this edition of the eBulletin out to you.

Please visit the Journal of Public Deliberation (JPD), an online resource providing insights into deliberative democracy from two views, research and practice.

D-d.net encourages practitioners and researchers to contribute up to 2,000 word "think pieces" for publication to the website. These periodic commentaries are intended to provoke debate and stimulate inquiry into the broadening fields of practice and research. Please send your enquiries to editor@deliberative-democracy.net

As always, a quick acknowledgement to everyone who has referred readers to the eBulletin: we are now a community of more than 655 subscribers! Deepest thanks. Please keep the news and views coming in.

Lars Hasselblad Torres
Editor

1 | NEW RESOURCE: DELIBERATION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS ONLINE
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In late June scholars from the deliberative democracy field and the dispute resolution field, including several members of CDN, convened at MIT to explore the potential synergies between the two fields. For more information and a summary of this symposium please visit the CDN Online

2 | NEW RESOURCE: SCALING UP PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND GIS
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Very insightful article on Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) has appeared in the online journal, Directions Magazine, titled Scaling Up As A Grand Challenge for Public Participation. In the article, the authors argue that, "Perhaps an Internet platform combining GIS (i.e., data management, spatial analysis and geovisualization) technologies, decision modeling technology, and communications technology into a geospatial portal to support an analytic-deliberative process might be one way to foster meaningful participation in large groups as well as hold down the cost to all who wish to participate."

To read the complete article, which provides an excellent overview of deliberation as a discrete approach to public participation, please visit Directions Magazine online

3 | NEW RESOURCE: TRENDS IN CONSULTATION, CANADA
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In preparation for a delegation of Chinese officials to the Canadadian Parliamentary Center, CPRNs Public Involvement Network and Ascentum, an Ottawa consulting firm, prepared an overview of citizen engagement efforts across Canada and their place in the Canadian system of government. Trends in Public Consultation in Canada describes Canada's political structure, reviews the different forms of public involvement, and principles of best practice drawn from a growing Canadian experience. To illustrate those principles, the paper presents a number of case studies, among them the use of electronic consultation by Parliamentary committees, the use of engagement in one federal department's policy development process, and provincial democratic reform initiatives. To download the paper, please visit CPRN Online

4 | CONFERENCE: DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES AS LEARNING SPACES
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The Teachers College at Columbia University will host, "Democratic Practices as Learning Opportunities: Comparing International Experiences & Understandings" November 4 & 5th in New York City. The aim of the conference is to explore how people learn to engage in democratic practices within their cultural and historical contexts. The conference is organized around keynote addresses with Q&A time and panel discussions with scholars from around the world engaged in civic education, adult education, and political science, sociology, and public policy, international and comparative education.

For more information and to register, please visit Columbia University Teachers' College online

5 | INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE: REINVENTING DEMOCRACY BOOK PROJECT
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Over the next year and a half, the author Mike Logan is looking to join forces with democratic reform advocates to inform people about the subtle (and not so subtle) erosion of freedoms, the birthing of new and exciting democratic ideas and ideals, and the solutions for reclaiming democracy in daily life. Mike's effort, "101 Solutions to Reclaim Democracy," is part of Guy Dauncey/New Society Publishers' Solutions Project and is slated to be finished in January of 2007. For the moment, Mike is asking to be placed on your email list, and, if appropriate, to invite you to contribute your ideas for the reclamation of democracy. Many organizations and solutions (but not all, unfortunately) will be identified by name and link in the main text and/or appendix of this book.

For more information about the effort, contact Mike directly at:
myke_logan@yahoo.com or (250) 629-6739

6 | NEW RESOURCE: PUBLIC VALUE OF SCIENCE
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Demos recently published 3 pamphlets: The Public Value of Science, a new pamphlet from Demos-UK, argues that we need to find new ways of talking about and building 'the public value of science'. Britain's hope of becoming the best place in the world to do science rests as much on giving scientists the freedom and incentive to renew their institutions and practices, as it does on 10-year frameworks and R&D targets.

This in turn, Demos argues, reinforces why we should engage the public in decisions about science: public value provides a new justification for the engagement that will help renew science's social contract. It enriches conversations between scientists, policymakers and the wider public, and encourages them to be about more than just competing views.

Download the pamphlet online at Demos

7 | CPRN PUBLICATION SCOOP
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The Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN) has commissioned two research papers that will make a significant contribution to the field of public involvement in Canada and elsewhere.

Fostering Canadians’ Role in Public Policy: A Strategy to Institutionalize Public Involvement by Peter Aucoin and Lori Turnbull.
This paper will offer an assessment of what is needed to institutionalize meaningful public involvement for the purpose of informing public policy decisions, their implementation and monitoring. The authors will explore efforts undertaken in this respect to date in Canada and in other OECD countries. They will identify barriers to public involvement in our existing democratic institutions and common characteristics of successful, ongoing public involvement. The authors will conclude with recommendations on how to overcome barriers and build on opportunities, laying out an action strategy for strengthening public involvement in Canada.

This paper will help provide a common understanding for policy makers, practitioners and researchers of the value of ongoing and meaningful public involvement. It will also explore ways of overcoming the barriers that currently exist and recommend mechanisms and a strategy to embed public involvement within Canadian public policy processes.

Assessing the Impacts of Public Participation: Concepts, Evidence and Policy Implications by Julia Ableson and Francois-Pierre Gauvin
This paper will assess what is known about the impacts, influence and outcomes of deliberative forms of public involvement on public policy, civic literacy, and civic and political engagement. The authors will identify gaps and limitations in our knowledge and recommend fruitful lines of inquiry to shed more light on evaluation approaches, including the questions of when, what and how to evaluate. They will explore the state of knowledge about the impact and influence of public involvement on public policy and civic literacy in different policy contexts (e.g., environment, biotechnology, health, education, etc.), jurisdictions and cultural contexts. They will also assess the conceptual and methodological approaches that are being used (and could be used) to assess these impacts and influences.

This paper will help policy makers, practitioners and researchers better understand the role of public involvement within the policy process and more broadly within democracy, its contributions and its challenges.

Watch for these papers on the CPRN website Fall 2005.

8 | ONLINE FORUM: AFRO DESCENDENT PARTICIPATION THROUGH DELIBERATION
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Members of civil society throughout the Western Hemisphere who are interested in Afro Descendant issues are invited to participate in discussions that support the participation of Afro Descendants in the Inter-American system. Through an online deliberative forum, civil society will work together to establish shared strategies for raising the profile of Afro Descendant concerns in the Americas and for influencing hemispheric policy. Results of the deliberation will be shared with decision makers at the hemispheric level. Civil society members interested in Afro Descendant issues are encouraged to register and participate in the forum by visiting the Partners website.

The deliberation is being held now through October 21, 2005, and new participants will be allowed to join the discussion at any time during those dates. It will be conducted in English and Spanish with written submissions in Portuguese and French also accepted. Weekly and midweekly summaries will be provided in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. This online forum is an initiative of Partners of Americas’ Center for Civil Society in collaboration with the Centro de Mujeres Afrocostarricenses, Global Rights, the Inter-American Foundation, the Inter-Agency Consultation on Race in Latin America, and the Inter-American Democracy Network.

For more information, please visit the Partners website or contact Partners of the Americas by email

CARRY OVER ITEMS

9 | CANADIAN CONFERENCE ON DIALOGUE AND DELIBERATION
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The Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2) is open for information and early registration. Set for October 27-30, 2005, in Ottawa, Canada, this innovative conference will bring together 300 practitioners, decision makers, policy developers, and researchers from the public, voluntary and private sectors to learn and share information and skills.

Those interested in helping to shape the agenda and conference sessions can complete a "needs assessment" online. The website www.c2d2.ca, includes background information, useful links and direct electronic registration for the conference.

C2D2 is supported by Canadian Policy Research Networks, Public Policy Forum, Canadian Institute for Public Engagement, Ascentum, Democracy Education Network, International Association for Public Participation, National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and Deliberative Democracy Consortium are behind the event.

For more information, contact: Sandra Zagon at szagon@ascentum.ca or (613) 565-1500 or Miriam Wyman, mwyman@utoronto.ca or (416) 413-0347.

10 | RESOURCE: THE DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY HANDBOOK
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The Deliberative Democracy Handbook is a terrific resource for democratic practitioners and theorists. It combines rich case material from a range of political and institutional settings with careful reflection on core principles. The Handbook generates hope for a renewed democracy, tempered with critical scholarship and political realism. Most important, this handbook opens a spacious window on the innovativeness of citizens in the U.S. (and around the world) and shows how the varied practices of deliberative democracy are part of a larger civic renewal movement.

To learn more, please visit the Handbook's website

11 | CONFERENCE: ENGAGING YOUNG CANADIANS IN WHAT MATTERS TO THEM
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CPRN’s National Dialogue and Summit, to be held November 25-27, 2005 in Ottawa with young Canadians, is intended to help bring the voices of young adults into Canada’s national conversation about our collective future. This signature project for CPRN’s 10th anniversary will welcome 160 young Canadians, ages 18-25, to have a dialogue - first with each other and then with about 40 decision makers from the public, community and private sectors. They will discuss the policy implications of their dialogue and develop concrete actions that can be taken across the country.

For further information about the project please visit www.cprn.org

12 | CONFERENCE: COLLABORATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
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The Community Based Collaboratives Research Consortium's Conference, "Putting Knowledge to Work," will be held Nov. 17-19, 2005 in Sedona, Arizona. The conference will have a major focus on applying knowledge from both research and from field-based experience about collaboration for environmental protection. Researchers, community collaborative groups, state and federal agencies, local governments, facilitators, and environmental organizations will gather to learn about new research findings from Consortium projects and from leading researchers from across the U.S. and Canada.

To learn more, view the conference agenda and download registration forms visit www.cbcrc.org. If you have questions, send an email to cbcrc@virginia.edu