Community Engagement Blog

Jamming together: how folk festivals engage local communities

Community is central to the idea of the folk festival. But communities that host these public events don’t just provide inspiration, venues or cultural backdrops to art or performance. They actively shape the event’s success.

New: Activity Page

‘Likes’, ‘shares’ and ‘thumbs up’: Facebook and political participation, or what’s in it for the me generation?

Is Facebook more likely to encourage political participation among young people? Darren G. Lilleker, Head of the Centre for Politics and Media Research, Bournemouth University, brings into focus where, how and why young people engage – and disengage – with politics.

Online deliberation: a literature review

Online deliberation has attracted a great deal of academic attention over the past two decades as various governments have explored its potential to contribute to public policy development.

Tune-in, tune-out patterns of political engagement

Mats Ekström and Adam Shehata’s study of social media queries whether low thresholds encourage tune-in, tune-out patterns of political engagement.

Food security, asylum seekers and the Food Justice Truck

Since 2012 Deakin University and Pozible.com have funded research for social good – research that may otherwise be sidelined by traditional channels. Fiona McKay, School of Health and Social Development, expands on the current campaign for food security for asylum seekers in a mobile fresh food market, the Food Justice Truck.

Fundamental Issue of Fiscal Trust: Part I

Dina Graser, Senior Advisor at the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance, University of Toronto and Pamela Robinson, Associate Professor, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Ryerson University, suggest citizen engagement processes can be mapped onto dimensions of “trust”.

Get engaged – complain!

Jessica Topham discovers using complaints can be a starting point for positive engagement and problem solving.

Participatory Budgeting Nurtures Democratic Values

Participatory budgeting purports to improve transparency and accountability. ‘Participatory Budgeting in the United States: A Guide for Local Governments’ is a primer that explores a now popular form of participatory governance.

6 Tips For Choosing Community Engagement Tool

Online community engagement software comes in many guises with a range of different options for engaging communities and stakeholders. As a minimum standard for any online community engagement software, here are the top 6 things to look for.

Data-driven governance crucial to social change

Decision-makers are investing in data-driven practices and programs to achieve real social change where community members are not just recipients but producers of project outcomes.

Children’s civic engagement

The Scratch online community addresses children’s civic engagement. Children and youth are provided a space to program, share, and discuss interactive media projects. A project by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, members have shared over 16.3 million projects and 87.4 million project comments.

Interactive mapping operationalizes accessibility

In transport planning, locational accessibility measures offer insights into the possibilities of broader economic effects. Linking transport systems and land use, accessibility measures can transform complex technical information into representations more easily understood information for diverse stakeholders that can support co-creative planning.

Citizen engagement in urban transformation: smart cities, smart citizens, but smart projects?

‘Citizen engagement requires good communication – but good communication alone is not citizen engagement’. Alec Walker-Love, Europe-based communications specialist with a background in urban mobility, reflects on a practitioner research report on citizen engagement and urban transformation.

Sustainable cities foster a community-engaged university

Portland, one of the world’s most sustainable cities, benefits from university-community partnerships on sustainability. B.D. Wortham-Galvin, Jennifer H. Allen and Jacob Sherman discuss Portland State University’s community engagement, teaching and service.

Smart city: from innovative concept to government vision

The smart city comprises multiple facets and collaborations. Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Genova, Renata Paola Dameri, investigates the relationship between principal actors she identifies at its conceptual core: university, government and industry.

Digital engagement empowers a new political participation

Digital technologies facilitate new forms of civic and political engagement. Yet questions continue to emerge around online engagement and social change.

E-government promise to transform citizen-government relations

Robert Cropf’s new book offers a practical appraisal of e-government’s promise to transform citizen-government relationships into a transparent and responsive collaboration.

Why the 90-9-1 rule works: inequality and community engagement

In his research into primary processes of public consultation, community engagement researcher, Dr John May opines that the 90-9-1 rule reveals underlying patterns of inequality are fundamental to community engagement.

Social inclusion in smart cities: participatory innovation in Finland

The notion of social inclusion in smart cities has given rise to the need for smart environments to support participatory innovation, where the ‘city as a platform’ enables citizens to co-create solutions.