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Levels of Government Working Together
The problem:
- Is us and our attitudes.
- What if the government is not a party to the social contract, but instead a product of that contract.
Examples:
- Leduc and Edmonton as municipalities unable to organize and work
together to form a unified transit system from the Edmonton core to the
airport.
- A town hall meeting that was refused to be held because, in the words
of the elected representative, "Will only lead to discourse and
argument." The citizens are self-organizing within their own homes to
work out these issues, building momentumvirally.
The Needed Change:
- What happens if we really come to believe that we are the boss and that politicians are our servant leaders?
- 100 year ago women were unable to votel
Technology Solutions:
- How do we allow for continued viral organization?
- Twitter is a fine potential tool, but not all people are comfortable with it.
- Any tool can be used to self-organize.
- Telephones, coffee-shops, etc, can all bring people together.
Challenges?
- Polarization in large discussions/debates.
- How do you re-frame conversations to allow and incorporate other opinions and viewpoints?
- People need to realize for the interest of the community as a whole, not necessarily their own.
- Government can be perceived as "scared" of their citizens.
- ex, Bringing security into one of the school closure townhalls raised the anxiety level significantly.
So How Do We Get There?
- It is easy for discussion and debate to become polarized quickly.
- The key is to start at the end. Where do we want to end up?
- Why do we want an LRT to go there? Why do we need a school here?
- Generating interests that aren't owned by a SINGLE level over government.
- Give levels of government a mandate - a summit or other event - to bring them together.
- "Ignore your constituents at your peril."
- Cross-government public access \ training for government organizations to allow easy access to WHERE information can be found, even if it's not necessarily a part of their scope.
ChangeCamp
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