Released in September 2017, this report shares data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, ... more Released in September 2017, this report shares data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE - "n-solve"). NSLVE is a database of 9.5 college student voting records, from more than 1000 U.S. institutions, in 2012, 2014, and 2016. This report compares voter registration and voting records from 2012 and 2016.
For the last five years, we have had the honor of serving as editors of the Journal of Public Del... more For the last five years, we have had the honor of serving as editors of the Journal of Public Deliberation. This issue marks the end of our editorial tenure, and we take this opportunity to both look back and think ahead. In this brief essay, we reflect on what we’ve seen during our time as editors. We begin by describing three important special issues that reflect the state of our field, then provide some details about how we have facilitated JPD’s growth over the past five years, including publication statistics and article download rates. We conclude by discussing where the journal is now and what we anticipate for its future.
This article introduces the special “State of the Field” issue. The essay highlights some of the ... more This article introduces the special “State of the Field” issue. The essay highlights some of the key tensions that our field is wrestling with at the moment, and advocates that we think carefully about the terms we use to describe our work. It previews the articles in this special issue and urges future work in the field to take up the ideas, questions, and challenges posed by these essays.
This “Afterword” essay was written several months after the Frontiers of Democracy 2014 conferenc... more This “Afterword” essay was written several months after the Frontiers of Democracy 2014 conference. It offers the Journal of Public Deliberation’s editors’ reflections on the conference and connections to the articles published in this special issue.
Renewing US democracy will require an active and deliberative public, people who can work togethe... more Renewing US democracy will require an active and deliberative public, people who can work together to address pressing social and political problems. To engage effectively Americans need an understanding of how American democracy works, its foundations and the complex and sometimes changing dimensions to those foundations. Advocates for increasing active and deliberative citizen engagement need to work with reformers in different areas of democracy’s ecological system, integrating public engagement with reform efforts in justice and equal opportunity, knowledge and information development, and government integrity.
This paper is premised on the assumption that civic responsibility is the contemporary version of... more This paper is premised on the assumption that civic responsibility is the contemporary version of higher education's historical outreach mission. With that as an understanding, it considers how best colleges and universities can fulfil this commitment of service to external communities, broadly defined to include local, national, and international concerns. The paper offers typologies of ways that institutions structure academic outreaCh, responsive curricula, land-grant and extension school programs, faculty professional service, coordinating student volunteerism and encouraging public access to campus for athletic or cultural events. Institutions interested in enhancing their civic role can take from this paper strategies for enhancing an institution's civic life. They can use this paper as a yardstick for their own practice.
Learning and Teaching the International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, 2009
Across the U.S.A, everyday citizens, civic leaders, policy makers, and educators are experimentin... more Across the U.S.A, everyday citizens, civic leaders, policy makers, and educators are experimenting with inclusive, deliberative approaches to addressing social, economic, and political issues. Some academics and civic leaders describe this renewal in citizen engagement as a movement, a significant, transformative shift in the way we interact with each other to solve public problems, strengthen communities and 'do' democracy. Colleges and universities need to take stock of the movement towards a more deliberative democracy and adapt their programmes and activities to fit what democratic societies need today. Many campuses already offer programmes in inclusive dialogue, deliberative public reasoning, justice and other Constitutional values, democratic leadership and conflict management. Many faculty members use democratic teaching methods. These can serve as helpful models. For all colleges and universities, the challenge is to get to scale, to teach all students - not just a few in particular disciplines or co-curricular activities - to serve as effective citizens in an increasingly diverse, deliberative democracy.
... The doctrine of in loco parentis pro-vided that the college had a right to step into the plac... more ... The doctrine of in loco parentis pro-vided that the college had a right to step into the place of the student's par-ents (by promulgating and enforcing aca-demic and nonacademic codes of con-duct) and a duty to protect the safety, morals, and welfare of its students. ...
Across the country, Americans are experimenting with a form of democracy-often referred to as del... more Across the country, Americans are experimenting with a form of democracy-often referred to as deliberative democracy-in which ordinary citizens, public officials, and politicians engage in an open, inclusive process of dialogue, deliberation, and action in order to address matters of public concern. At the core of deliberative democracy is a conviction that conflict and competing policy concerns are best resolved through a process of collective, or public, reasoning. Our political and social systems should be organized to encourage citizens and policy makers alike to be reasonable and to be able to give reasons for their views, actions, or policy choices. This article explores the role of reason in public life. It reviews how terms such as reasonableness and public reason are used in legal and political theory. It then calls upon higher education to examine the role of reason and reasoning in student learning and development and as a critical component of education for citizenship in a diverse democracy.
Last summer, the Democracy Imperative and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, two national net... more Last summer, the Democracy Imperative and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, two national networks linking academics and deliberative democracy practitioners, hosted a national conference, No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy ...
What would happen on your campus if, for several hours each week, members of various constituenci... more What would happen on your campus if, for several hours each week, members of various constituencies-students, faculty, staff, institutional leaders, parents, community partners, and trustees-discussed pressing ethical and social issues facing the campus or broader society? We are not referring to what typically occurs on college campuses: sporadic public panel discussions or lectures followed by a few minutes of polite questions. Nor are we referring to structured events such as departmental or taskforce meetings, judicial processes, or professional development seminars. And we certainly are not envisioning pointcounterpoint debates.
This "Afterword" essay was written several months after the Frontiers of Democracy 2014 conferenc... more This "Afterword" essay was written several months after the Frontiers of Democracy 2014 conference. It offers the Journal of Public Deliberation's editors' reflections on the conference and connections to the articles published in this special issue.
This article introduces the special "State of the Field" issue. The essay highlights some of the ... more This article introduces the special "State of the Field" issue. The essay highlights some of the key tensions that our field is wrestling with at the moment, and advocates that we think carefully about the terms we use to describe our work. It previews the articles in this special issue and urges future work in the field to take up the ideas, questions, and challenges posed by these essays.
Released in September 2017, this report shares data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, ... more Released in September 2017, this report shares data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE - "n-solve"). NSLVE is a database of 9.5 college student voting records, from more than 1000 U.S. institutions, in 2012, 2014, and 2016. This report compares voter registration and voting records from 2012 and 2016.
For the last five years, we have had the honor of serving as editors of the Journal of Public Del... more For the last five years, we have had the honor of serving as editors of the Journal of Public Deliberation. This issue marks the end of our editorial tenure, and we take this opportunity to both look back and think ahead. In this brief essay, we reflect on what we’ve seen during our time as editors. We begin by describing three important special issues that reflect the state of our field, then provide some details about how we have facilitated JPD’s growth over the past five years, including publication statistics and article download rates. We conclude by discussing where the journal is now and what we anticipate for its future.
This article introduces the special “State of the Field” issue. The essay highlights some of the ... more This article introduces the special “State of the Field” issue. The essay highlights some of the key tensions that our field is wrestling with at the moment, and advocates that we think carefully about the terms we use to describe our work. It previews the articles in this special issue and urges future work in the field to take up the ideas, questions, and challenges posed by these essays.
This “Afterword” essay was written several months after the Frontiers of Democracy 2014 conferenc... more This “Afterword” essay was written several months after the Frontiers of Democracy 2014 conference. It offers the Journal of Public Deliberation’s editors’ reflections on the conference and connections to the articles published in this special issue.
Renewing US democracy will require an active and deliberative public, people who can work togethe... more Renewing US democracy will require an active and deliberative public, people who can work together to address pressing social and political problems. To engage effectively Americans need an understanding of how American democracy works, its foundations and the complex and sometimes changing dimensions to those foundations. Advocates for increasing active and deliberative citizen engagement need to work with reformers in different areas of democracy’s ecological system, integrating public engagement with reform efforts in justice and equal opportunity, knowledge and information development, and government integrity.
This paper is premised on the assumption that civic responsibility is the contemporary version of... more This paper is premised on the assumption that civic responsibility is the contemporary version of higher education's historical outreach mission. With that as an understanding, it considers how best colleges and universities can fulfil this commitment of service to external communities, broadly defined to include local, national, and international concerns. The paper offers typologies of ways that institutions structure academic outreaCh, responsive curricula, land-grant and extension school programs, faculty professional service, coordinating student volunteerism and encouraging public access to campus for athletic or cultural events. Institutions interested in enhancing their civic role can take from this paper strategies for enhancing an institution's civic life. They can use this paper as a yardstick for their own practice.
Learning and Teaching the International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, 2009
Across the U.S.A, everyday citizens, civic leaders, policy makers, and educators are experimentin... more Across the U.S.A, everyday citizens, civic leaders, policy makers, and educators are experimenting with inclusive, deliberative approaches to addressing social, economic, and political issues. Some academics and civic leaders describe this renewal in citizen engagement as a movement, a significant, transformative shift in the way we interact with each other to solve public problems, strengthen communities and 'do' democracy. Colleges and universities need to take stock of the movement towards a more deliberative democracy and adapt their programmes and activities to fit what democratic societies need today. Many campuses already offer programmes in inclusive dialogue, deliberative public reasoning, justice and other Constitutional values, democratic leadership and conflict management. Many faculty members use democratic teaching methods. These can serve as helpful models. For all colleges and universities, the challenge is to get to scale, to teach all students - not just a few in particular disciplines or co-curricular activities - to serve as effective citizens in an increasingly diverse, deliberative democracy.
... The doctrine of in loco parentis pro-vided that the college had a right to step into the plac... more ... The doctrine of in loco parentis pro-vided that the college had a right to step into the place of the student's par-ents (by promulgating and enforcing aca-demic and nonacademic codes of con-duct) and a duty to protect the safety, morals, and welfare of its students. ...
Across the country, Americans are experimenting with a form of democracy-often referred to as del... more Across the country, Americans are experimenting with a form of democracy-often referred to as deliberative democracy-in which ordinary citizens, public officials, and politicians engage in an open, inclusive process of dialogue, deliberation, and action in order to address matters of public concern. At the core of deliberative democracy is a conviction that conflict and competing policy concerns are best resolved through a process of collective, or public, reasoning. Our political and social systems should be organized to encourage citizens and policy makers alike to be reasonable and to be able to give reasons for their views, actions, or policy choices. This article explores the role of reason in public life. It reviews how terms such as reasonableness and public reason are used in legal and political theory. It then calls upon higher education to examine the role of reason and reasoning in student learning and development and as a critical component of education for citizenship in a diverse democracy.
Last summer, the Democracy Imperative and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, two national net... more Last summer, the Democracy Imperative and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, two national networks linking academics and deliberative democracy practitioners, hosted a national conference, No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy ...
What would happen on your campus if, for several hours each week, members of various constituenci... more What would happen on your campus if, for several hours each week, members of various constituencies-students, faculty, staff, institutional leaders, parents, community partners, and trustees-discussed pressing ethical and social issues facing the campus or broader society? We are not referring to what typically occurs on college campuses: sporadic public panel discussions or lectures followed by a few minutes of polite questions. Nor are we referring to structured events such as departmental or taskforce meetings, judicial processes, or professional development seminars. And we certainly are not envisioning pointcounterpoint debates.
This "Afterword" essay was written several months after the Frontiers of Democracy 2014 conferenc... more This "Afterword" essay was written several months after the Frontiers of Democracy 2014 conference. It offers the Journal of Public Deliberation's editors' reflections on the conference and connections to the articles published in this special issue.
This article introduces the special "State of the Field" issue. The essay highlights some of the ... more This article introduces the special "State of the Field" issue. The essay highlights some of the key tensions that our field is wrestling with at the moment, and advocates that we think carefully about the terms we use to describe our work. It previews the articles in this special issue and urges future work in the field to take up the ideas, questions, and challenges posed by these essays.
Concerns over neutrality challenge educators and practitioners alike. In public life, the questio... more 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.
For the last five years, we have had the honor of serving as editors of the Journal of Public Del... more For the last five years, we have had the honor of serving as editors of the Journal of Public Deliberation. This issue marks the end of our editorial tenure, and we take this opportunity to both look back and think ahead. In this brief essay, we reflect on what we’ve seen during our time as editors. We begin by describing three important special issues that reflect the state of our field, then provide some details about how we have facilitated JPD’s growth over the past five years, including publication statistics and article download rates. We conclude by discussing where the journal is now and what we anticipate for its future.
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Reports by Nancy Thomas
Papers by Nancy Thomas