Rethinking Public Engagement Summit

This 50-minute session will introduce the four forces that call for Rethinking Public Engagement. 

https://www.gfoa.org/rethinking-public-engagement-summit

Many of the challenges that most inspire the passion of citizens are complex problems. Complex problems pose a challenge to public engagement. Because they defy easy answers, they contribute to a sense of cynicism about what collective action, through government, can…

The “information tsunami” that buffets our society challenges our ability to make sense of the world around us. The mechanisms for expressing and gathering opinions have exploded, but our ability to make sense of them and create mutual understanding have significantly…

Citizens have rights but also responsibilities to uphold a democratic government that guarantees those rights. In recent years, there has been more emphasis on individual rights and less on the collective responsibility to maintain the system that guarantees those rights. This can result in…

Bad actors don’t play by the rules of democratic discourse. They disrupt public engagement, eschew compromise, and generally impede productive conversation. However, not all bad actors are the…

High quality democratic decisions depend on high quality democratic institutions. Institutions ensure that the capacity for public engagement is on-going. But what are the capacities local governments need? And who should provide those …

The politics of cynicism results when complex problems meet with a delegitimized government and a public fractured into competing groups. The politics of cynicism rejects compromise as tantamount to capitulation, making it difficult to reconcile or transcend competing interests. Local…

Public officials stand to gain a lot from high quality public engagement, but it won’t go far if officials are not supportive of it. Some officials have concerns with public engagement that prevent them from embracing…

Skepticism of expertise is widespread, meaning that public is less likely to defer to expertise of local government officials. Instead, they bring their own research to public meetings and elevate lived experience over expert opinion. Public engagement must be designed…

The public has more things competing for their attention than ever before. Local government has to compete for attention in order for people to engage. Fortunately, much has been learned in recent years about how to make things…

Today’s information environment allows people to define their own reality. Bad actors complicate this through pollution of the information environment with mis- or disinformation. Yet some common understanding of the issues the community faces is necessary for productive…

Participatory budgeting is a groundbreaking format of public engagement. It allows citizens either to contribute in defining budget priorities of their municipality, or to propose projects which will benefit the entire community. In this talk, we explore the main advantages and the challenges of…

When it comes to engaging the public on the budget the goal should be that by the time residents are done they should think to themselves, “this is hard.” Successful engagement puts residents in the shoes of decision makers and lets them weigh tough tradeoffs that take costs and available resources…

Social innovation communities worldwide have recently focused on local governance and blockchain technologies. In this panel, we explore the intersections of these trends, highlighting how we might apply blockchain technologies to make cities stronger. These ideas range from…

This session is intended for people who are not familiar with the concept of collective intelligence. We will review examples of collective intelligence that are found in nature and use them to learn …

Like many institutions, city governments are experiencing a trust deficit, making it difficult to deliver services. As a result, many are deploying digital tools and data-analysis techniques to…

Emerging technologies for citizen participation in local government policy- and decision-making have been limited to two primary forms of engagement: public projects through…