KF News and Ideas

New from the Kettering Foundation---Citizens, Deliberation, and the Practice of Democracy: A Triptych from the Kettering Review

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Thu, 06/14/2012 - 08:48

Citizens, Deliberation, and the Practice of Democracy: A Triptych from the Kettering Review brings together writing by 19 leading thinkers on the contemporary challenges of democracy. These provocative essays, first published in three issues of the Kettering Review to celebrate 25 years of the National Issues Forums, challenge readers to rethink conventional notions of democracy, public deliberation, and citizenship.

Kettering Conversations: NIFI President Bill Muse Discusses "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty"

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 14:56

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012) by MIT professor Daron Acemoglu and Harvard professor James A. Robinson is a lengthy examination set apart from other works describing indicators of economic success of nations by its emphasis on politics. Politics, in one way or another, has always been about the power to make choices. In the case of the authors’ examination, it is primarily about the type of political institutions, people’s access to them, and the unique historical events that created them.

New from the Kettering Foundation---Journalism as a Democratic Art: Selected Essays by Cole Campbell

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Tue, 05/22/2012 - 12:01

Journalism as a Democratic Art is an edited collection of 16 essays by Cole Campbell (1954–2007), former newspaper editor, dean at the University of Nevada School of Journalism, and a colleague of the Kettering Foundation. These essays reflect Campbell’s effort to rethink some of the underlying assumptions that he believed kept his craft at a distance from citizens. To Campbell, readers were not just consumers of information but citizens facing common problems.

New Informational Booklet About KF Now Available

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Tue, 05/22/2012 - 11:56

This booklet provides a brief introduction to the Kettering Foundation and its research, the main focus of which is understanding what it takes to make democracy work as it should.

New from the Kettering Foundation---Democratizing Deliberation: A Political Theory Anthology

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Wed, 05/16/2012 - 15:29

A new book from the Kettering Foundation Press, Democratizing Deliberation, brings together recent and cutting-edge political theory scholarship on deliberative democracy.

The 2011 issue of the Higher Education Exchange Is Now Available Online

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 19:34

The 2011 issue of the Higher Education Exchange seeks to address the question, “What if the real school of education at a university is, in fact, the entire institution itself; that is, the university or community college as a whole?”

Golden Governance: Building Effective Public Engagement in California

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 19:31

Research exchanges at Kettering feature an ever-shifting cast of old and new friends whose interests and inquiries shed light on and complement our lines of inquiry. We are more than refreshed by these exchanges; we meet with people and organizations that further our work.

New KF Working Paper - Because I Can: Exploring Faculty Civic Agency

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 19:24

This working paper reflects a series of conversations that have been taking place within the Kettering Foundation’s research on the democratic mission of higher education. In our research, we have noticed that many of the most innovative efforts have come from faculty who are deeply frustrated with narrow conceptions of what counts as scholarship and seek to connect their professional work with deeply held civic aspirations.

The Complete Version of KF's Documentary - No Textbook Answer - Is Now Available Online

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 19:16

Education has been the topic of a handful of widely distributed documentaries in recent years. 2009’s Race To Nowhere highlights what some believe is an overemphasis on academic outcomes in America’s educational system, and that the subsequent risk to our children’s mental health. A play on the Obama administration’s controversial Race To The Top legislation, the film insists that education should accentuate creativity, instead of what some would argue are meaningless, stress-inducing academic outcomes.

Collaboration and the Ecology of Democracy

Submitted by Kettering Blog on Wed, 11/16/2011 - 19:37

This Kettering Foundation report explores the features and implications of citizen-driven, multi-party collaboration. Authors Kemmis and McKinney regard this problem solving across deep ideological and interest group divides as an important, but still emerging, form of democracy.