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Introducing Kettering Foundation Research
The Kettering Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan research organization. It examines issues that concern people, such as the education of the next generation, financial security for older citizens, and the relationship between the United States and other world powers like Russia and China.
Kettering research is distinctive because it is done from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do about issues that concern them. Another way to explain the research is to say that it is about making democracy (self-government) work better; it is about how people collectively can make a difference in what happens in their lives, beginning in their communities.
The foundation follows in the tradition of experimental research that was characteristic of a generation of inventors, including the Wright Brothers and Kettering’s founder, Charles F. Kettering.
Collaborative Research
Kettering has a small staff that collaborates in research with organizations around the world that are working to solve problems similar to those Kettering studies. Some of these organizations focus on regional economic development and community health care. Others, such as neighborhood associations and ad hoc coalitions, combat street crime and drug abuse. This network also includes libraries and university-based policy institutes, as well as religious organizations and tribal councils.
The foundation does not go into other communities or organizations to study them but relies primarily on what they learn from their own experiments to improve democracy. Those working on related problems share what they are learning in foundation workshops, which provide an ongoing exchange for learning how democracy can work as it should.
Kettering’s research is interconnected just as all the practices needed for democracy to work are interconnected. Still, it is useful to look at democracy from different perspectives. Although all of the research is done from the viewpoint of citizens, as they see problems and decide how to deal with them, the foundation also pays close attention to the perspective from community, where citizens have to come together not only to make decisions but also to act on their problems.
The foundation also looks at democracy from an institutional perspective as citizens try to work productively with schools, governments, colleges, universities, and civic organizations.
Making democracy work means putting the public back into the public’s business; this begins when people take on the responsibility of citizenship. Kettering gets its insights from what citizens learn when they work together in their communities.
Kettering research is based on information given by communities, so it goes directly back to them, as has been the case in cities from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to El Paso, Texas, to Abakan, Russia. People in these and other communities are grappling with problems ranging from ending juvenile violence to improving race relations to building stronger economies.
National Issues Forums and Deliberation
To work together effectively, people benefit from making decisions together about what work should be done. And these decisions need to be sound. Some of the foundation’s research on public decision making is used to prepare briefing books for citizens on critical issues.
Each book presents three or more options for dealing with an issue and lays out the pros and cons of each option. The choices include possible actions by government, as well as actions that people might take. These briefing books include those produced for the National Issues Forums (NIF) series.
Although the foundation does not conduct forums, its briefing books have been used in forums conducted by thousands of civic, educational, and professional organizations throughout the country. Results from these forums have helped Kettering study what enables people to move from hasty reactions to more reflective and shared decisions on critical issues. Deliberation—fairly weighing the likely consequences of various options for action on those things that people consider deeply important—has proven essential for coming to sound judgments.
Outcomes of the forums based on foundation research are reported locally by the organizations that convene them and nationally through events and panel discussions held in Washington, D.C. Briefings are also held annually for Congress, agencies in the executive branch of government, and the media.
Research shows that citizens don’t always have confidence in our major institutions, including those in education, government, and the media. For instance, Kettering studies have found that public schools may lack the public needed to be effective.
Many other institutions can’t do their jobs without taking into consideration the work that citizens do—and the way they do it. So the foundation studies how citizens and these institutions (along with their professionals) can combine their efforts more productively.
Experiments Around the U.S and the World
Kettering studies have been drawn from and used by such institutions as those represented by the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Southern Growth Policies Board, the American Bar Association, and the Colorado and Kentucky state school board associations.
One of the most notable experiments is going on in Hawaii, where the legislature has asked a faculty group at the state university (which has collaborated with Kettering in research) for information on how deliberative citizens weigh the trade-offs on issues before the general assembly.
Faculty at Gulf Coast Community College in Florida and other institutions have done much the same for local and state officials, as well as their representatives in Congress. Public deliberation also allows officials a glimpse into public thinking, or how the public goes about making up its mind when difficult choices have to be made.
Nongovernmental organizations outside the United States also collaborate with Kettering, and members of their staffs come to the foundation as visiting fellows. The people who participate in this fellowship program have come from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, and the Pacific Basin.
In collaboration with the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, which has projects from Tajikistan to South Africa, Kettering studies the role of citizens in political conflict that has been or threatens to become violent. The foundation also exchanges research staff with Chinese institutes and universities and conducts joint research on the perception that citizens in the two countries have of one another.
The foundation’s research is made possible by in-kind and direct financing from organizations doing collaborative studies with Kettering and by income from an endowment. The foundation has a campus in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City.
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