Public Participation

AI Lab, City of Salem Public Library, November 16, 2023

Public Hearing Simulation, Lane County Harris Hall, Eugene Oregon, November 2, 2023

Public Hearing Simulation, Lane County Harris Hall, City of Eugene, Oregon, July 2023

AI Workshop Participants, City Council Chambers, City of Salem, Oregon, July 17, 2023

Public participation, also known as citizen engagement, citizen participation, or public involvement, is the inclusion of the public in the activities of any organization or project.

Arnstein’s Ladder

Arnstein’s ladder is a model for understanding how the degree of citizen participation in government can affect public perceptions of legitimacy, authority and good governance. It presents different levels of public participation, with the ‘most desirable’ forms of participation found the higher you move up the ladder.

Public Hearing

A public hearing is defined as an open gathering of officials and citizens, in which citizens are permitted to offer comments, but officials are not obliged to act on them or, typically, even to respond publicly. Also known as public inquiries, public hearings are typically organized as a way to gather public opinions and concerns on political issues before a legislature, agency, or organization makes a decision or takes action.

Logical Fallacies

A fallacy is reasoning that is logically incorrect, undermines the logical validity of an argument, or is recognized as unsound. All forms of human communication can contain fallacies. List of Fallacies

Errors and manipulation of rhetoric and logical thinking include appeals to the mind, appeals to emotions, faulty deductions, manipulating content, garbled cause and effect, and “on the attack.” Rhetological Fallacies

Design Charrette

A design charrette is a short, collaborative meeting during which a member or client can share their work with members of their team. They can talk through, collaborate, and sketch designs to explore and share a broad diversity of design ideas.

The idea for design charrettes (from the French word charrette meaning “chariot” or “cart”) is believed to have derived from stories of architectural students in Paris in the 1800s. As the story goes, students’ exams were collected in a charrette, and some of these students continued to sketch together as their designs were being gathered for evaluation. [Iconica]