Gregg Kaufman has been fostering deliberation in his community for years. In “CGA and Zoom Technologies: Deliberation in the Era of COVID-19,” Maura Casey reports on some of the online forums that Kaufman has convened from his home in Jacksonville, Florida. In this video, Kaufman shares what drew him to deliberation and how he collaborated with others two years ago, in 2018, to create a framework for people in his city to address the fraught issue of confederate monuments. Channeling conflict into more constructive deliberation began with renaming the issue itself. The public deliberations that followed led to a perhaps surprising outcome: a desire to learn more about the city’s rich history.

While the Jacksonville forums, combined with other local initiatives, contributed to meaningful efforts to grapple with the city’s historical legacy, the current national unrest has led to a decision to remove the confederate monuments. The decision in Jacksonville has mirrored similar decisions in cities across the country.

Channeling Conflict into Constructive Deliberation from Kettering Foundation on Vimeo.