The Pleasure Principle: Considering Happiness, Delight, and Joy in Democracy and Community Engagement

October 18, 2023

Civic life, particularly the aspects of civic life that interact directly with government, can often seem lifeless. What role do happiness, pleasure, and joy play in participatory democracy? What possibilities might we imagine together if we paid particular attention to nurturing those emotions in our work and in our civic spaces.

A Place Where We Belong: A Multiverse of Community Engagement

October 21, 2022

A greater understanding of which practices nurture a sense of belonging among community members and which practices do not can help us strengthen public engagement efforts and do a better job of providing for human needs.

Take a Seat at Oregon’s Kitchen Table: Adapting Targeted Universalism for Broad and Deep Civic Engagement

January 10, 2020

Universal programs often distribute resources where they are not most needed. Targeted programs, on the other hand, are politically vulnerable. Targeted universalism sidesteps those problems by focusing on broad goals followed by specific strategies.

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