Engaging with Policy, Practice and Publics


Book Description

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Engagement with non-academic groups and actors – such as policy-makers, industry, charities and activist groups, communities, and the public – in the co-production of knowledge and real-world impact is increasingly important in academic research. Drawing on empirical research, interdisciplinary methodologies, and broad international perspectives, this collection offers a critical examination of the liminal space of interactions between policy and research as spaces of difference and engagement, showing them to be far from apolitical. The authors consider what, and who, are present in these encounter spaces and examine how pre-existing perceptions about differences in social identity, positionality and knowledge can affect engagement, equity and research outcomes.




Engaging with Policy, Practice and Publics


Book Description

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Engagement with non-academic groups and actors – such as policy-makers, industry, charities and activist groups, communities, and the public – in the co-production of knowledge and real-world impact is increasingly important in academic research. Drawing on empirical research, interdisciplinary methodologies, and broad international perspectives, this collection offers a critical examination of the liminal space of interactions between policy and research as spaces of difference and engagement, showing them to be far from apolitical. The authors consider what, and who, are present in these encounter spaces and examine how pre-existing perceptions about differences in social identity, positionality and knowledge can affect engagement, equity and research outcomes.




Talking Climate


Book Description

This book describes a fresh approach to climate change communication: five core principles for public engagement that can propel climate change discourse out of the margins and into the mainstream. The question of how to communicate about climate change, and build public engagement in high-consuming, carbon-intensive Western nations, has occupied researchers, practitioners, and campaigners for more than two decades. During this time, limited progress has been made. Socially and culturally, climate change remains the preserve of a committed but narrow band of activists. Public engagement is stuck in second gear. By spanning the full width of the space between primary academic research and campaign strategies, this book will be relevant for academics, educators, campaigners, communicators and practitioners.




Policy Practice and Digital Science


Book Description

The explosive growth in data, computational power, and social media creates new opportunities for innovating the processes and solutions of Information and communications technology (ICT) based policy-making and research. To take advantage of these developments in the digital world, new approaches, concepts, instruments and methods are needed to navigate the societal and computational complexity. This requires extensive interdisciplinary knowledge of public administration, policy analyses, information systems, complex systems and computer science. This book provides the foundation for this new interdisciplinary field, in which various traditional disciplines are blending. Both policy makers, executors and those in charge of policy implementations acknowledge that ICT is becoming more important and is changing the policy-making process, resulting in a next generation policy-making based on ICT support. Web 2.0 and even Web 3.0 point to the specific applications of social networks, semantically enriched and linked data, whereas policy-making has also to do with the use of the vast amount of data, predictions and forecasts, and improving the outcomes of policy-making, which is confronted with an increasing complexity and uncertainty of the outcomes. The field of policy-making is changing and driven by developments like open data, computational methods for processing data, opining mining, simulation and visualization of rich data sets, all combined with public engagement, social media and participatory tools.




Creating Spaces of Engagement


Book Description

There is a growing need for public buy-in if democratic processes are to run smoothly. But who exactly is "the public"? What does their engagement in policy-making processes look like? How can our understanding of "the public" be expanded to include – or be led by – diverse voices and experiences, particularly of those who have been historically marginalized? And what does this expansion mean not only for public policies and their development, but for how we teach policy? Drawing upon public engagement case studies, sites of inquiry, and vignettes, this volume raises and responds to these and other questions while advancing policy justice as a framework for public engagement and public policy. Stretching the boundaries of deliberative democracy in theory and practice, Creating Spaces of Engagement offers critical reflections on how diverse publics are engaged in policy processes.




Public engagement in policy making


Book Description

In this report the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) calls for a "wiki" approach to policy-making, where public opinion, ideas and contributions are sought and welcome at any and all stages of the policy cycle. The Government should be able to demonstrate that it has adopted this approach alongside ministerial leadership and responsibility for policy and its outcomes. All policy making carries risks: a lack of appetite for participation, disappointment arising from unrealistic expectations and the dominance of vested interests. Government must frankly assess and address these risks in relation to open policy making. Digital technology has a significant role to play in opening up policy-making. Government could and should go further and embrace radical and innovative approaches, making use of existing platforms and technologies, such as Twitter. The success and impact of public engagement in policy-making must be effectively measured. Government must able to demonstrate value for money and improved outcomes with this new approach, particularly in a time of austerity. The Committee says proposals for both "open" and "contestable" policy-making demonstrate that Government recognises the value of public opinion in helping to identify problems and develop solutions. However, for open policy-making to work, it must be a genuine departure from more traditional forms of policy-making, where public engagement has usually only occurred after the Government has already determined a course of action. Care must be taken to ensure that open policy-making processes are not dominated by vested interests or 'the usual suspects' who are aware of policy 'opportunities'.




Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street


Book Description

The second edition of Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street offers a modern guide for how to adapt public relations strategies, messages, and tactics for countries and cultures around the globe. Drawing on interviews with public relations professionals in over 30 countries as well as the author’s own experience, the book explains how to build and manage a global public relations team, how to handle global crisis communication, and how to practice global public relations on behalf of corporations, non-profit organizations, and governments. It takes readers on a tour of the world, explaining how to adapt their campaigns for Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Along the way, readers are introduced to practitioners around the globe and case studies of particularly successful campaigns. This new edition includes updates to country profiles to reflect changes in each local context, as well as expanded coverage of social media and the role of influencer engagement, and a brand-new chapter on global crisis communication. The book is ideal for graduate and upper-level undergraduate public relations students, as well as practitioners in intercultural markets.







Community Engagement, Organization, and Development for Public Health Practice


Book Description

In this practical text, public health students and practitioners will learn the fundamentals of applying community engagement, organization, and development principles to create successful community public health campaigns. Emphasizing nontraditional approaches and partnerships, and the need to readjust traditional strategies, it discusses organization and development methods optimal for public health practice, including public health ethics, faith-based initiatives in community health, community assessment and measurement methods, coalition building, frameworks for developing health policy, and more. This textbook addresses work in at-risk and diverse communities, and stresses the impact of urban change on the community engagement, organization, and development process. It also discusses the methodologies and theoretical frameworks underlying successful community organizing and development. The multidisciplinary public health scholars and practitioners contributing to this work identify the skills required to both analyze the health and health care delivery challenges of underserved communities, and to understand the social, cultural, environmental, and economic determinants of health and illness. The book includes a wealth of practical approaches and case studies drawn from the authors' real-life experiences in developing successful community health campaigns. Key Features: Disseminates the fundamentals of applying community engagement, organization, and development principles to community public health campaigns Provides real-life examples of methods and strategies used in engaging, organizing, and empowering community residents Discusses community organization approaches and the methodologies and frameworks underlying them Emphasizes the impact of urban change on the future of community organization and development process Written and edited by contributors with a wealth of practical and academic experience




Tricky Design


Book Description

Tricky Design responds to the burgeoning of scholarly interest in the cultural meanings of objects, by addressing the moral complexity of certain designed objects and systems. The volume brings together leading international designers, scholars and critics to explore some of the ways in which the practice of design and its outcomes can have a dark side, even when the intention is to design for the public good. Considering a range of designed objects and relationships, including guns, eyewear, assisted suicide kits, anti-rape devices, passports and prisons, the contributors offer a view of design as both progressive and problematic, able to propose new material and human relationships, yet also constrained by social norms and ideology. This contradictory, tricky quality of design is explored in the editors' introduction, which positions the objects, systems, services and 'things' discussed in the book in relation to the idea of the trickster that occurs in anthropological literature, as well as in classical thought, discussing design interventions that have positive and negative ethical consequences. These will include objects, both material and 'immaterial', systems with both local and global scope, and also different processes of designing. This important new volume brings a fresh perspective to the complex nature of 'things', and makes a truly original contribution to debates in design ethics, design philosophy and material culture.