Sponsor
Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning
First Advisor
Dawn Richardson
Term of Graduation
Summer 2024
Date of Publication
8-2-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Studies
Department
Urban Studies and Planning
Language
English
Physical Description
1 online resource (xi, 179 pages)
Abstract
Faced with unresponsive government institutions and the limitations of representative democracy, participatory and deliberative democrats have created alternative models for robust democratic participation such as civic juries, civic assemblies and participatory budgeting. Advocates claim that these methods create better citizens and better outcomes and they claim these forums act as a school of democracy. The schools of democracy theory describes participation as a virtuous circle--that doing democracy will make people more democratic. While these processes often produce enthusiastic supporters and encouraging results, there has been very little research to date that attempts to explain how and why people learn and change because of their participation. This points to the need to develop an evidence-based pedagogy of public participation that allows practitioners to intentionally design processes that will lead to better learning outcomes for participants.
My research questions test the schools of democracy theory by examining the educative impact for participants in the 2019 Milwaukie Citizens Jury and explores which components of the process design most impacted their learning. Through a holistic, single case study design, I use in-depth surveys, participant observation and qualitative interviews, and a research instrument developed by Lerner and Schugurensky to evaluate participants’ informal learning by measuring changes in their knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices (KASP). My key findings are that the Milwaukie CJ acted as a school of democracy and that participants' KASP indicators increased. These changes occurred largely in the category of knowledge and participants most often linked dialogue with other jurors as the explanation for their learning. Conversely, this study illuminates negative impacts on participants' learning associated with neutral facilitation methods and lack of involvement by City staff may have negative impacts on participants' learning. These findings inform the shortcomings of the schools of democracy theory and recommend an improved iteration that specifies how and why participants learn. This has a broader relevance for those interested in establishing a pedagogy of public participation that integrates understanding of how to design processes that maximize participants' learning outcomes.
Rights
© 2024 Amanda Grace Hudson
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42529
Recommended Citation
Hudson, Amanda Grace, "Participatory Democracy: The Potential for Civic Transformation Understanding Participants' Learning in the Milwaukie Citizens Jury" (2024). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6696.