Access Under Duress

This paper examines the rapid turn to remote public meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a mix of archival materials, participant observation, and interviews within and around two mid- to large cities in the Rust Belt and Midwest regions of the United States, we consider how public officials introduced digital meeting platforms and surveys in place of traditional forms of in-person public consultation. We also examine emergent strategies of residents as they worked to have their voices heard and concerns met during a time of compounding crises (e.g., pandemic, economic recession, racial violence). Drawing from this case study, we articulate the concept of disruptive testimony, forms of public witnessing that trouble established hierarchies of power, surface conflict, and open opportunities for social change. We argue consideration for collective counter-power is increasingly important to GROUP scholarship as it attends to civic engagement beyond participation in formal, sanctioned government processes.

Durable Civic Technology

Minecraft is a video game that allows players to interact with a 3D environment. Launched in 2009, Minecraft has surprisingly durable popularity. Users report that Minecraft is easy to learn and understand, engaging and immersive, and adaptable. Outside North America it has been piloted for urban planning public consultation processes. Five years ago, authors conducted research using key informant interviews. This study asked practicing urban planners in Canada to assess Minecraft's potential. Key findings address Minecraft's usefulness as a visualization tool, its role in building public trust in local planning processes, the place of play in planning, and the challenges associated with its use in public consultation. This chapter explores Minecraft's ongoing use, offers reflections as to how this game could effectively be used for public consultation, and concludes with key lessons for urban planners whose practice intersects with our digitally-enabled world, with a particular focus on new application possibilities in smart city planning projects.

Data protection in post-Brexit Britain: A response to the Government of the United Kingdom’s public consultation on reforms to the data protection regime (“Data: A new direction”)

Ever since the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, the UK government has made it clear that they see opportunities for enacting new legislation. One of these opportunities is to legislate how new technologies are to be used, and how citizens’ personal data is handled where it is used as a necessary component of such technologies. On September 10th 2021, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) launched its public consultation for proposed reforms to the UK’s data protection regime. We believe that it is appropriate that careful eyes are kept on the UK’s data protection regime in order to ensure that existing legal frameworks are appropriately future proofed, especially when we consider that the overall UK regulatory environment is in-flux, as UK law and policy begins to diverge from that of the European Union. This appropriate future proofing of a new data protection laws includes both the public and private sector use of technologies requiring the processing of high-volumes of personal data – in many cases making use of machine learning techniques – that can expose data subjects to considerable harms to their fundamental rights and personal interests. In this response we set out some of the concerns we are having about this legislative proposal, and why a change of course is called for.

Perubahan Peran Perempuan Setelah Pengadaan Tanah untuk Pembangunan Yogyakarta International Airport: Kasus Kalurahan Kebonrejo di Kabupaten Kulonprogo, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta

Women are one of the parties being affected by the process of land acquisition for the construction of public infrastructure. This article aims to analyse the change of women role after the implementation of land acquisition for the construction of Yogyakarta International Airport in Kulonprogo regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta. The research is carried out in Kebonrejo village, Temon district using quantitative approach supported by qualitative approach. Quantitative data are collected through a survey among 30 female respondents in the households selected by a simple random sampling and analysed through Rank Spearman test, while qualitative data are obtainded through documents review, participant observation and depth interview with key informants. The research findings demonstrate that there is a weak relationship between the participation of women throughout the implementation of land acquisition and the change of women role after the completion of land acquisition. This is due to the fact that despite there is a strong emphasize of public consultation and participation in the regulation of land acquisition, the will and power of the government is very strong and could not be influenced by the whole affected community. In addition, the process of land acquisition itself often put aside women’s specific aspiration and intereset. Consequently, a relative equal gender relation within the household during land acquisition process didn’t have any effect throughout the process and afterward. Keywords: women participation, the roles of women, land acquisition, development of public infrastucture. Intisari: Perempuan adalah salah satu pihak yang terimbas oleh pengadaan tanah untuk pembangunan infrastruktur publik. Artikel ini bermaksud untuk menganalisis ,perubahan peran perempuan setelah pengadaan tanah untuk pembangunan Yogyakarta International Airport di Kabupaten Kulonprogo, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta. Penelitian lapangan dilakukan di Kalurahan Kebonrejo, Kapanewon Temon dengan menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif yang didukung pendekatan kualitatif. Data kuantitatif diperoleh dari survei atas 30 responden perempuan dalam rumah tangga yang dipilih secara simple random sampling dan diolah dengan uji Rank Spearman, sementara data kualitatif diperoleh melalui studi dokumen, pengamatan terlibat dan wawancara mendalam dengan para informan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat hubungan yang lemah antara keterlibatan perempuan selama proses pengadaan tanah untuk pembangunan Yogyakarta International Airport dengan peran perempuan setelah pengadaan tanah. Ssekalipun keharusan konsultasi dan partisipasi publik sangat ditekankan dalam regulasi pengadaan tanah, namun kehendak dan kekuasaan yang kuat dari pemerintah membuat proses pengadaan tanah tidak dapat dipengaruhi oleh masyarakat terdampak secara keseluruhan. Selain itu, proses pengadaan tanah itu sendiri abai terhadap aspirasi dan kepentingan spesifik kaum perempuan. Akibatnya, relasi gender yang relatif setara di level rumah tangga selama proses pengadaan tanah tidak memiliki hubungan apa pun sepanjang proses tersebut maupun setelahnya. Kata Kunci: keterlibatan perempuan, peran perempuan, pengadaan tanah, pembangunan infrastruktur publik.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRITICAL SUCCESS CRITERIA ON SUSTAINABLE HOUSING; A CASE OF - LOW INCOME HOUSING, SRI LANKA

Sustainable housing is a popular topic with regard to the SDG, sustainable communities and Sustainable cities. Although different researches have come up with regard to different CSC of specific contexts there are very limited studies on CSC on Sustainable low-income housing. This research aims to compare the CSC on Sustainable low-income Housing in designing stage in Sri Lankan Context. 18 CSC were derived from comprehensive literature review and re-examined through the 27 professionals and ranked from community on three locations. Relative Importance Index- RII, Min Max Normalization and Gap analyses were employed in the ranking process of Critical Success Criteria. The highest importance has been ranked with Efficiency use of water and energy, Users Satisfaction and Quality of Housing while least importance is ranked with Maintainability, Public Consultation and community participation and cater for Disables and by Literature, Experts and Community respectively. Anyway, Public Consultation and Community Participation, newly derived CSC which is highly ranked among community is to be concentrated among the professionals for the attention and applications in practices. The findings of the research would support to the designers, architectures, planners specialized in this field to ensure the successful delivery of sustainable housing.

OP316 Patients’ Testimonials In The National Committee For Health Technology Incorporation In Brazilian Public Health System (Conitec) Meetings

IntroductionThe Department of Management and Incorporation of Technologies and Innovation in Health (DGITIS) acts as Conitec's Executive Secretariat. Among its attributions, it promotes the public/patient involvement in the health technology assessment (HTA) process. Recently, Conitec has been working on the inclusion of patient's testimonials about their illness experience in the plenary sessions, that is, the monthly meeting where technologies are assessed.MethodsTo support the action of including patient reporting in Conitec's HTA process, DGITIS developed research on HTA agencies websites worldwide. The main criteria was the inclusion of patients’ reports in their Committee meetings. DGITIS contacted some of these agencies and requested a listserv question to the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) members. These findings supported the DGITIS for the inclusion of patient participation in Conitec's meetings, from the selection process to the actual participation.ResultsFor the Conitec's HTA process, the patients’ participation should occur in the prior session to the public consultation, guaranteeing the inclusion of their perspective since the recommendation process beginning. Hence, every demand for incorporation to be discussed at Conitec's meeting should be preceded by a public call for patients with the clinical condition. The DGITIS will also hold preparatory meetings, which will serve as moments for shared construction of knowledge and literacy.ConclusionsThe nomination process, so far, has been grounded as a consensus among the patients. Thus, Conitec acts as a mediator, connecting the involved stakeholders, in a way that they can autonomously organize themselves and indicate the main representative and an alternate one. With the inclusion of the patient's perspective in the Conitec's meeting, another form of patient participation was opened in the HTA process. Therefore, the consolidation of this participation space is feasible and contributes to enrich the Brazilian HTA process.

Public consultation in the evaluation of animal research protocols

One response to calls for increased openness in animal research is to make protocols publicly accessible, but it is unclear what type of input the public would provide if given this opportunity. In this study we invited public responses to five different research projects, using non-technical summaries intended for lay audiences. Our aim was to assess the potential for this type of public consultation in protocol review, and a secondary aim was to better understand what types of animal research people are willing to accept and why. US participants (n = 1521) were asked (via an online survey) “Do you support the use of these (insert species) for this research”, and responded using a seven-point scale (1 = “No”, 4 = “Neutral”, and 7 = “Yes”). Participants were asked to explain the reasons for their choice; open-ended text responses were subjected to thematic analysis. Most participants (89.7%) provided clear comments, showing the potential of an online forum to elicit feedback. Four themes were prevalent in participant reasoning regarding their support for the proposed research: 1) impact on animals, 2) impact on humans, 3) scientific merit, and 4) availability of alternatives. Participant support for the proposed research varied but on average was close to neutral (mean ± SD: 4.5 ± 2.19) suggesting some ambivalence to this animal use. The protocol describing Parkinson’s research (on monkeys) was least supported (3.9 ± 2.17) and the transplant research (on pigs) was most supported (4.9 ± 2.02). These results indicate that public participants are sensitive to specifics of a protocol. We conclude that an online forum can provide meaningful public input on proposed animal research, offering research institutions the opportunity for improved transparency and the chance to reduce the risk that they engage in studies that are out of step with community values.

OTESSA's Submission for the Government of Canada's Federal Pre-Budget Consultations

Governments have the opportunity to influence policy in education and to facilitate funding to support its implementation. This document contains seven recommendations made to the Government of Canada as part of its public consultation in developing its federal budget. It was developed with input from both members and public contributors involved with the Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association (OTESSA), then submitted to the Canadian federal government in August of 2021. The document was originally posted on a blog post on the OTESSA website at https://otessa.org