Communication and Interaction - Public Participation Flashcards
What are some tips for digital public participation?
- 81% of Americans have smartphones. Utilize mobile apps and provide hotspots.
- Standardize both traditional and virtural engament practices - consistency is key.
- Overcome the bias of digital feedback - it’s just as important as traditional commentary.
- Provide live translation during virtural meetings.
- Continue to use and provided phone interviews and mailed surveys (with pre-paid return postage).
What are some stats about the public’s ability to consume information?
- 27% of adults don’t have broadband at home.
- 9% of fUS residents (5+ years old) have limited English.
- 19% can not read a newspaper (for multiple reasons).
An intensive collaborative effort that brings together citizens, stakeholders, and staff to develop a detailed design plan for a specific area.
May be held over one or more days.
Effective for quickly developing consensus.
Small groups (each with facilitator) focus on design solutions.
Good for community input.
Good for committee with a specific task, discussing concepts BEFORE drafting a plan, small/facilitated groups are better for controversial issues.
Compressed work session - intense with short feedback loops.
Collaborative and attentive to detail. Quick to respond to issues.
Should be multi-day.
Design Charrett
Structured PP process with main intent of coming to a consensus decision.
Created in 1944 for the U.S. Army Air Force.
Panel of selected/informed citizens/stakeholders are asked to complete questionnaires.
Questions written as hypotheses.
Anonymous feedback (answers) presented to the group after each question. Participants may revise their answers based on the anonymous replies - over time, the range of answers decreases and the groups converges towards a single solution.
Developed by RAND in 1950s
Delphi Method/Technique
Group problem identification, solution generation, and decision-making process.
Used for groups of any size that want to come to a decision by vote.
Everyone’s opionion is shared through group presenation/sharing of ideas. Ideas put into lists with duplicates deleted and resulting ideas/solutions ranked by the group.
Solution with the highest ranking is selected.
Nominal Group Technique
A non-involved 3rd party directs a meeting of disagreeing groups/stakeholders work through complex problems and come to consensus.
Typically led by a community volunteer who is respected by all participating groups. Could be a hired professional.
Facilitation
Neutral 3rd party facilitates discussion in a structed, multi-stage process to help parties reach a satisfactory agreement.
Facilitator assists parties ID and articulate their interests/priorities.
Resulting agreement specifies measureable, achievable, and realistic solutions - typically in writing.
Dispute-resolution process associated with the Courts.
Mediation
Associated with Planning/City Commissions/Councils.
Formal citizen input opportunity at the end of the planning process.
Mandated by law.
Considered ineffective at building public participation/consensus.
Public Hearings
Technique that assists citizens in evaluating physical images of natural and built environments.
Citizens asked to view/evaluate variety of pictures of houses, sites, building styles, streetscapes, etc.
Aggregated scores used to determine resident preferences.
Visual Preference Survey
Informal input gathering approach.
Takes place in initial states of project or goal determination phase.
Take splace within small, internal group setting (staff, agency leads, commission members).
Considered step 1 in goal-setting process
Brainstorming
Informal gathering at a neighbor’s house.
Coffee Klatch
A randomly-selected group of participants who collaborate on developing solutions to a given issue.
Planning Cell
Who created “Ladder of Participation” and what are the three levels?
Sherry Arnstein
1. Non-participation
2. Tokensim
3. Citizen power
Community engagement method that works well for…
Understanding perceptions/guage attitudes.
Not good at building consensus.
If internet-based, not good for poor/elderlyy.
Mail versions are cheap/convenient/easy BUT have low response rates.
Good for learning preferences but bad for deeper public input and consensus building.
Surveys
Community engagement method that’s good at…
Good at building consensus
Facilitating small group sessions on contoversial social issues. Good for a SPECIFIC issue.
Good for discussing plan concepts before drafting.
Food for committee with a specific task.
Meet with as many groups as possible.
Good for discussing conepts before a plan is drafted.
Focus Groups
