Driving Change Through Authentic Community Engagement

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Governments can drive economic growth and mutual progress by collaborating with communities to co-create innovative projects. But how can they effectively spark this collaboration?

In the latest episode of The Future in Context, host Ashley Silver interviews author Fern Tiger about her new book, Creative Instigation. The conversation highlights the importance of authentic community engagement before launching technology or economic development projects, the challenges governments and organizations face, and the innovative strategies that can lead to meaningful solutions. Drawing on her extensive community work experience, Tiger emphasizes the need to understand local contexts and histories to foster effective public-private partnerships.

Show Notes

Here are the five top takeaways from this week’s episode:

1. Challenges With Community Engagement: Tiger explains why traditional community engagement tools, like polls and surveys, often fall short. According to Tiger, these methods can fail to capture true community sentiments, as responses may vary based on factors as fleeting as a participant’s mood. Effective engagement should challenge communities to reflect on their feelings about issues, going beyond surface-level feedback.
2. Tailoring Engagement to Each Community’s Context: Governments can build trust and transparency by taking a hands-on approach, listening actively to residents and leaders, and staying responsive to evolving community dynamics. Genuine feedback can lead to policies and initiatives that more accurately address community needs.
3. Financial Constraints on Innovation: One major obstacle to government-community projects is budget limitations. Tiger discusses how funding challenges can stifle creativity and limit future initiatives, highlighting the need for innovative financing and partnerships that can unlock resources and drive change.
4. Case Study in Hawaii: Tiger shares a case study from Hawaii, where local officials, community advocates and residents collaborated to enhance innovation projects. This example illustrates the power of authentic dialog and the tangible benefits of understanding unique community needs.
5. Future Plans: The episode wraps up with a look at what’s next for Tiger following the release of Creative Instigation Oct. 22.

Related Link to the book referenced in the episode:

Fern Tiger, Creative Instigation: The Art & Strategy of Authentic Community Engagement, New York, NYU Press, October 2024.

Our editors used ChatGPT 4.0 to summarize the episode in bullet form to help create the show notes. The main image for this story was created using DALL-E 3.