CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW RESOLVE Blog

Follow us over on the NEW RESOLVE blog!

2011-04-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers,

We hope you will join us at http://www.resolv.org/category/blog/ where you can follow our activity the same way you have here, and in even more ways!!!

Thanks,
The RESOLVE Team

We have moved!!!

2011-03-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks for following the RESOLVE blog!

Don't worry - we have launched our new, updated blog on our website!

Check out the new blog at www.resolv.org/blog
Take a tour of our new website!

Internship Opportunity

2011-03-14T16:27:00.001-07:00

RESOLVE is seeking an intern for the Summer 2011 semester. This is a paid internship lasting through August 2011. We are looking for a Masters or Ph.D. student who has completed at least one year of coursework focused on collaboration or public policy, and who has some collaboration experience.

Interested? Please submit your application using the link below:
http://www.resolv.org/about/job-announcements/

Wait a Minute--How Do You Know That?

2011-03-10T12:36:00.001-08:00

An administrator from a large commercial insurance company calls you at Y.C.O. “You Control the Outcome” (an ADR organization specializing in mediation). He tells you that his best friend just got divorced. He was surprised that it was not as bad as many other people's divorces. His friend said it was because they had a mediator who smoothed the process out and helped them both move on without too many hostile feelings. Moreover, his friend bragged about how much money and time his ex-wife and he had saved by mediating their divorce. The administrator (we'll call him Dave) asks you how would mediation help his firm get faster, cheaper, and better settlements to their disputes. You are so excited you tell him yes, you and your associates specialize in helping organizations resolve their conflicts efficiently and economically. Wait a minute—how do you know that's true?

This column will help us figure out how to separate the hype from the facts, the marketing claims from the reality. First though, we have to venture into a little bit of philosophy. Then, we'll come back to what to tell Dave.

How Do We Know What We Know?

Sometimes you just know, in your gut, something is true. You are mediating and suddenly you think, oh my God, it's not the money that's bugging him, it's face saving. Your client didn't say or do anything, it just comes to you in a flash, and you know it's true. This is intuition. It is not the result of reasoning or sense perception but an immediate insight.

Other times we know something because someone we know and trust tells us that something is so. We call the most experienced mediator we know and ask them what they do if they think that one of their participants is hiding really important facts in the mediation. We are not asking our colleague because he or she has written or done research on disputants who hide facts, but because they have a lot of experience or status in the field.

Maybe though, we don't need to call our experienced colleague. Maybe we know something is so because of our own experience. As we go through practice, we encounter a number of experiences that add up to a pattern. We begin to see how this leads to that; how whenever a party does a particular thing, pretty soon another particular thing happens.

Another way of knowing involves deliberately collecting information to test our ideas, this is empirical research. Empirical research involves posing a question, collecting data to answer that question, and then analyzing the data in a systematic way.

What Kind of Information Would Help Us Answer Dave?

You could tell Dave that you just have a good feeling about his organization and the type of cases he has and you sense that this is going to help; but Dave is probably not going to be persuaded by your intuition. How can he test your intuitive insights? So, maybe you tell Dave that you have mediated hundreds of these kinds of cases and you know from your vast experience that you can help him resolve his cases cheaper and faster. If Dave is persuaded by experience, he may ask you for a list of your clients and partners so that he can check on your experience.

Dave says "That's great, but my CEO and CFO are going to want some pretty convincing evidence. Do you have any numbers?” Now what are you going to do?

Call an Academic!

Lucky for you, just last week, you met a professor who teaches at a New England university. You call your new colleague (we'll call him Simon) and explain your dilemma. Simon says (sorry, I couldn't resist) he has an article he just wrote and faxes you a copy. If you are like most practitioners, you're a little leery of stuff that academics produce. How do you evaluate Simon's article? It might not be any better than what you come up with yourself just because it came from an academic.

Academic writing generally falls into three categories - empirical research, scholarly theorizing, or experiential reports. (We also write textbooks, but our example was a faxed article). Simon's discipline will affect which kind of writing he produces and how useful it is for what kind of problem the practitioner is facing.

Scholarly Work: If Simon teaches in the law school of his school, he will probably send you a case analysis or a policy document. Legal reasoning and legal research depends on reason and coherence for quality. Good legal writing is characterized by clearly describing the nature of a particular problem or policy. It depends on sound reasoning from known principles to the unknown, from the general to the specific, or from a premise to a logical conclusion (deductive reasoning). If Simon teaches economics or history, he might also send you a piece of scholarly work.

Empirical Research: What if Simon teaches sociology, communications, political science, or social psychology? He will probably send you a report from his most recent empirical research. Empirical research relies on the experimental approach to test assumptions or theories. Empirical research involves posing questions, systematically collecting data to answer those questions, and analyzing that data using public, replicable, and approved methods. It involves reasoning from many facts or cases to a general conclusion or finding (inductive reasoning). Good empirical research follows a rigorous set of standards, which a community of scholars applies to evaluate the project. (Of course, I understand that all the disciplines do different kinds of scholarly work and anybody from any discipline can do quality scholarly, empirical, or experiential work.)

Experiential Reports: On the other hand, maybe Simon sends you an article based on his experience as professor, practitioner, or administrator. Experiential information involves individual or group reflection upon surprises, problems, or policy issues to develop deeper understanding. It results in information rooted in personal experience, perspective, or judgement.

Is Simon's Article a BMW or a Kia?

So, does what Simon says help you answer Dave? Each of these types of academic writing has its own quality conventions. Here are some questions you can use to evaluate the quality:

1. What's the framework—the problem statement, the definitions, and the literature or case review? Does it relate to your context and clearly reveal definitions and assumptions?

2. What's the method—how was the question studied? Does what they observed or measured make sense? Did they miss anything important? Do the different things that were measured or observed have any relationship to the question?

3. Can you think of different reasons to explain the same finding? Are the interpretations acceptable? Can you think of alternative proposals that were not addressed?

4. Does it make sense and match your reality? Why or why not—does it challenge your assumptions or just indicate that the scholar doesn't know enough about your world?

How Should We Answer Dave?

In this research themed blog conversation, I will help you figure out what to tell the Daves among our clients and partners. Twenty years ago, we had the luxury of asking Dave to trust us while we tried out our new experiments. However, more and more Daves work for a company, court system, government agency, legislature, or school system that wants hard answers to difficult questions. Sometimes empirical research can answer the question. Sometimes it could, but no one has done that research. Many times empirical research can't answer the question because the question involves public policies, values, ethics or aesthetics. As a field, though, we need to be better at answering "How do you know that?"

Juliana E. Birkhoff is the Vice President of Programs and Practice at RESOLVE. Do you have a question that you would like the research column to address? Let us know in a comment and we'll see if we can address it in future issues.

Paradigm Shift

2011-03-02T12:31:00.001-08:00

Sustainability today requires something different: support for rapid innovation and collaborative leadership, safe space for risk taking, and partnerships formed across sectors. This requires the design of new systems and tools that support a collaborative approach. I call this Sustainability 3.0 and my keynote remarks at the 2011 SME Annual Meeting & Exhibit and CMA 113th National Western Mining Conference "Shaping a Strong Future Through Mining" explore progress and new challenges, for the mining industry, NGOs and society. Take a look.

- Stephen D’Esposito

Update from South Africa [travel]

2011-01-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hello RESOLVE and RESOLVE-y people:

Finished yesterday at noon facilitating the United Nations Environment Program meeting. The meeting was to develop options to finance international chemical and hazardous waste conventions. The delegates worked hard to understand and improve all the options and came up with a good approach to collect more information that can inform a future approach.

Really interesting to transition between local-to-national-to-international organizations and problem solving. I’m used as a facilitator with a chair, but very few people had worked with a chair managing content and a facilitator managing process so I could not do as much as I can in North America. It was interesting to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the chair/facilitator model.

After a morning debrief with the UN environmental program staff-I took a taxi to the American embassy in Pretoria, met the delegate from the U.S. there, and she had arranged for a driver to take us for a driving tour of Pretoria, then take us to the Apartheid Museum.

The museum was incredible.....emotional---sad, then frightening, then hopeful.

I also went on a tour of the animals at the hotel.

The inn has a very active breeding and rescue program. The herbivores are free on the property so I saw different kinds of antelope, as well as warthogs, giraffe. The predators are in enclosures---big but still cages. The farm has lions, two kinds of hyena, cheetah, and a leopard cub they are treating. They are also breeding tigers in cooperation with India--did you know that 350 tigers and 400 humans are killed every year in India? Evidently with more human encroachment on tiger territory, tigers have found that we are ideal prey-slow, weak, and tasty. Unfortunately for the tiger, evolution matched us up with guns....so tigers are now on the endangered species list. The farm also have two rare white tigers here, not for breeding but to rehabilitate for a zoo.

I saw lots of birds---whole families added to my life list as well as some incredibly beautiful and/or weird birds. Unfortunately, I did not bring my binoculars but could still see a lot.

On Thursday I had the taxi driver come early to take me on a driving tour of Johannesburg and Soweto on the way to the airport. It was sobering and inspirational to see Mandela’s house, Tutu’s house,and Hector Pieterson museum.

Then I embarked on my 18 hour flight--8 hours to Dakar where we changed crew and re-fueled and then the rest of the time to the U.S. Too bad I lost my last sleeping pill so had to endure economy without drugs!

Although I am glad that I did not cut my vacation short for work, it was hard to be away from home and RESOLVE for 16 days. By the end I was tired, looking forward to seeing friends and co-workers, and really looking forward to wearing something different, my own bed, my food, and the gym.

- Juliana

Coming in 2011…

2010-12-21T11:01:00.001-08:00

As 2010 comes to a close, the RESOLVE team is reflecting on the past year and planning for the year ahead. In 2010 RESOLVE launched the Solutions Network – which is still in development and growing with a variety of innovative projects. Check out this link in 2011 for more info on specific Network projects. We’ll be launching our new RESOLVE website in 2011 and wanted to give you a sneak preview. The site is the result of great logo design and conceptual work by Leo Burnett, the brand guidance of Chuck Pettis (www.brand.com) and the creativity and dogged work of Michael Brumm at Ascent Coalition. Check it out and stay tuned for the launch in early 2011.

Record Attendance at NWCC Wildlife Research Meeting

2010-10-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

Over 300 academics, federal and state officials, NGO representatives, and industry professionals are convening this week in Denver, Colorado for the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative's (NWCC) Wind Wildlife Research Meeting. The conference is the eighth in the series and will feature 65 poster and live presentations on research findings on the interaction between utility-scale wind turbine development, birds and bats, and their habitats. The full NWCC Wildlife Research Meeting Agenda can be found here, and more information about the NWCC can be found at www.nationalwind.org.

NWCC Co-hosts Transmission Policy Institute for State Lawmakers in Denver, CO

2010-08-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

The National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC) and the National Conference of State Legislatures hosted the Transmission Policy Institute June 17-18 in Denver, Colorado. Public utility commissioners, representatives from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Interior, and other experts provided State Lawmakers with foundational knowledge of the technical aspects of transmission planning, siting, cost allocation, energy integration, and smart grid technologies.

These are just some of the key issues involved in the integration of renewables that benefit from a multi-stakeholder, collaborative approach. An opportunity for dialogue allowed state lawmakers to discuss collaboration on the complex regional landscape of transmission and renewable energy generation. These generation and delivery mechanisms on the regional transmission scale, which comprise the bulk power system, are an essential component to integrating wind, solar, and other renewables onto the grid. Regional collaboration can streamline the transmission build-out necessary for greater renewables integration.

A summary from the meeting that will include the presentations on these topics will soon be available on the NWCC website.

Photo: Byron Woertz of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council explains to State Legislators how the U.S. bulk power system is organized.

The NWCC is a project of RESOLVE. The National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC) provides a neutral forum for a wide range of stakeholders to pursue the shared objective of developing environmentally, economically, and politically sustainable commercial markets for wind power in the United States. For more information, visit our website.

De Morgan Facilitates Ultimate Win

2010-07-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

RESOLVE Senior Mediator Paul De Morgan and his Ultimate Frisbee team “Troubled Past” ran an undefeated path to become the World Ultimate Club Champions, 2010 Masters Division. We were with Paul in Prague (site of the tournament) in spirit and online (via live streaming) for the Championship Game as he threw 1 goal and helped facilitate the offensive side of the team. Throughout the week-long event (10 games) he racked up a total of 15 points between goals caught and thrown.

Where you can find Paul next you ask… at home recuperating (just for the weekend, don’t worry…) with his new baby girl Naomi born on June 3!

Speaking of babies… did we mention Facilitator Dana Goodson is also a newly proud mother of her daughter Mariah born on May 26?

Just wanted to keep you all in the loop about the wonderful and exciting summer the RESOLVE family has embarked upon. Stay Tuned!

Collaboration and Technology Discussion Series - The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

2010-05-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

What makes for a good conversation? A seemingly simple question, but it reminds me of the importance of the basics as we venture into new terrain opened by technology.

I am having so much FUN exploring technological tools for public engagement! The process certainly looks different at times, which is part of the fun. And, yet, I keep coming back to the basics. What do we know about what makes a good conversation in person, and how do we translate that into a new setting, whether it be a web dialogue or a collaborative modeling process?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hosted a web dialogue in April as part of its support for a National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures. EPA decided this week to host a web dialogue to as part of developing a new strategy for its implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, and next week FDA will engage in a targeted dialogue with retailers about ways to reduce the number of children purchasing cigarettes. Although these are ones I have or will facilitate, they are just a few of many dialogues on important public policy issues popping up on the web.

If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll

The first fundamental I’ve relearned is that it’s as important to have a specific reason to use a new tool as to use an old tool. In each of these cases, the web dialogue solved a problem of scale. These agencies wanted to have a national conversation – and the web makes it easy for people all over the country to participate. However, just as in a face-to-face meeting, people want to know how what they say will be used. RESOLVE created a process map for two of these three cases to help the sponsor clarify how the outputs from the web dialogue fit in its overall consultation (and decision making!) process. Our partners created another invaluable tool at the back end, which allows the sponsor to “tag” messages with key words related to issues they needed to decide and the software automatically sorted the sometimes-messy entries into useful categories for input.

Did you ever throw a party and nobody came? Anonymous

Another fundamental that bears repeating is that outreach is critical. What makes us think people will come to our party just because it’s on the web? CDC did a fabulous job engaging its public health partners and stakeholders with diverse perspectives, forming a planning group, inviting their thoughts about good questions to ask, inviting their leaders to serve as subject matter experts in the dialogue, and asking them to reach out to their members to invite their participation. Our partners at WestEd created a cool map of the country that located each participant as a figure icon by their zip code. Seeing participants from 42 states and the District of Columbia was a dramatic visual message that this was in truth a national dialogue!

I think I should understand that better, if I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it. Alice

The advantage of the web, with people being able to participate at different times, means that agendas look different, but the power of a clear question remains the same. An agenda on the web? YES! I’ve learned from our partners at WestEd that it’s best to have one or two topics a day, each with two or three clearly formulated, open-ended questions. Any more than that and there are too many different conversations going on at the same time for participants to follow easily – and for a facilitator to track. I hadn’t thought it through before I did one that each question is a link to a different electronic space on the web.

Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction. Doornob.

Usually, simple works best. A web dialogue is just that – a dialogue on the web. Think web site, with tabs at the top that say home, agenda, discussion, participants, panelists, guidelines, etc.

Also, think facilitated, with a warm welcome message, acknowledgements, follow up questions to draw people out, comments noting linkages between messages, summarizing themes, a closing message, and a thank you each day with information about next steps, etc. I’ve been told that some web formats are not much more than an electronic version of a public hearing, with people making their statements and leaving. A facilitator can do a lot to encourage interaction and true dialogue – and so can the technology.

Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the different branches of arithmetic -- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. The Mock Turtle

The very openness that makes web-based processes attractive also creates concerns about an increased possibility of “bad” behavior. So, what do we do in person when people may be angry or abusive of one another? Ground rules help – which the technology actually makes it easier to enforce (by deleting or moving messages that cross the line). However, creating a personal connection is even more effective. Remember, people can read but not post unless they register. I’ve seen great results from a registration process that requires real names, contact information (although the latter remains confidential), and a personal statement so that people “meet” one another as they join the dialogue. Other ways to personalize the dialogue include involving respected subject matter experts from diverse perspectives serving as “panelists” with bios and photos to give a face to a name. And, respect, active listening, and sincere interest works as well on line as it does in person.

Tools that I’ve seen from WestEd include the capacity for any participant to post links to information sources (clear respect for two-way communication), for the facilitator to post a message that a response is needed that just panelists see, and for any participant to indicate concern that a message violates ground rules.

There’s so much more to learn and share and I look forward to what others have to offer. The key is to participate – just like in any dialogue. So speak up!

That's nothing to what I could say if I chose. The Duchess

Gail Bingham

Collaboration and Technology Discussion Series - Collaborative Values and Principles: Guidance for Choosing Collaborative Tactics and Tools

2010-05-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

RESOLVE has published a new article opening the door to conversation about choosing and using collaborative technological tools to increase partnerships and consensus building. The article raises several important questions that we will continue to explore in a series of blog posts and articles about the use of technology in collaborative and consensus building processes. As this discussion unfolds, you can expect to hear from RESOLVE senior staff and board members and gain access to case studies and best practice findings. This paper kicks-off a discussion leading up to the launch of the USIECR Technology Network. Throughout the conversation, we encourage you to read and participate. Send us a video, comment to our blog posts, or shoot us an email! We appreciate the variety of perspectives and experiences from our colleagues and partners who are using collaborative technology in their work.

RESOLVE builds strong, enduring solutions to environmental, social, and health challenges through collaboration – your input is a key component of that collaboration, and we look forward to hearing from you.

The new article, “Collaborative Values and Principles - Guidance for Choosing Collaborative Tactics and Tools” can be found on the RESOLVE website Reports and Manuscripts page

Stephen D'Esposito

Power Dynamics in Collaboration Discussion Series - Part 1

2010-05-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

Mediation is a Field: Shared Ideological Framework of Power
Power is a fundamental concept for facilitators and mediators. In conversations, mediators talk about power when they discuss their cases, their decisions about what tactics and strategies they used, and what the impact of their practice is on individual and broader social change.

Check out this interview of Dr. Juliana Birkhoff from 2006 where she explains how her dissertation demonstrates mediation is in fact a field and that what is uniting among experienced mediators is the concept of power.

www.mediate.com

RJC Update

2010-04-29T13:07:00.001-07:00

RJC looks at chain-of-custody for gold and diamonds in jewelry--a new contribution to the growing literature on sustainability chain-of-custody certification systems for minerals.

Building Trust and Relationships to Tackle Forestry Issues

2010-04-12T14:38:00.001-07:00

People sometimes contact RESOLVE to facilitate one meeting or run a large public hearing. While sometimes we will help with those events, our favourite requests are when people ask us to help them, over time build relationships, expand collaborative capacity, develop reliable information, and implement agreements that solve real problems.

Almost two years ago, I received a call from a forestry company in New Brunswick, Canada. Their question was simple – "Is there anything we can do to improve relationships between forest industries and environmental NGO’s?"

From that call, I contacted several New Brunswick environmental groups, university staff, provincial, and forestry company staff to organize a meeting. In that first meeting, a wide range of provincial, conservation, fishing, forestry company, and environmental group representatives exchanged concerns and perspectives on the environment and forestry. Some of them decided to meet, and then they met again… They developed and agreed on a mission and ground rules. They learned about each other’s concerns and shared information. They developed criteria for good projects to work together on and they brainstormed a long list of possible projects. They ranked the projects and began working together as the Forest Collaborative.

This week, Keith Ashfield, Minister of Parliament from Fredericton, New Brunswick, CA and NB minister of Natural Resources announced a $990,000 grant to the Forest Collaborative. Minster Ashfield said, "Twenty years ago we wouldn't have seen this kind of collaboration between industry, environmental groups and universities."

What kept these participants coming to meetings? Enough people wanted to try a new way of working together after years of conflict. They developed clear outcomes that could only be achieved through collaboration. They agreed that they did not have to tackle all provincial problems or develop the very best solution, just projects that would help. They communicated respectfully and productively and they worked in small groups between face-to-face meetings.

There will be challenges as the members of the collaborative tackle tough economic, social, and environmental problems. Developing trust and relationships led to new funding. New funds bring untapped resources and renewed energy to New Brunswick for new forestry solutions.

Listen to the podcast

Juliana Birkhoff

Tracing Conflict-Free Minerals

2010-04-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

Metals (e.g. tin, tantalum, cobalt and gold) used in electronics, jewelry and other consumer products can originate from conflict zones such as those in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the broader Great Lakes region of Central Africa. Reports from Enough, Global Witness and others tell the tragic story of how these metals can fund militias, deteriorate the environment, and reinforce economic disparities.

In response, electronics companies active in the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) began working to understand the complex, global supply chains for these metals. A supply chain describes the source of raw material, its processing and manufacturing, and then extends to delivering the final product to the customer. Metals are especially challenging and complex, with multiple steps, mixing of sources, and many actors in the supply chain.

With greater supply chain knowledge and transparency, companies could then begin to design and test strategies to source conflict-free and responsibly mined metals. GeSI and EICC asked RESOLVE to help analyze and respond to this challenge.

The Questions We Started With
In a broad sense, we were asking whether an electronics manufacturer could discover the sources of metals in its products all the way back to the mine; particularly when metals originate in a conflict zone. A jeweler can ask the same question about diamonds, a bike manufacturer, or an auto or airline company for aluminum. Specifically RESOLVE was asked to design and carry out a research program to trace three of these metals (tin, tantalum, and cobalt) into their supply chains to see how far we could go and whether it was possible to trace back to the source.

From the outset, we knew this research would be challenging. To address the challenge, we developed a collaborative research model. We created a Stakeholder Advisory Group that included NGOs, electronics companies, investor groups, and mining companies. This brought together a range of viewpoints on human rights, environment, and business concerns. In addition to helping design the research, understand supply chain challenges, and fill information gaps, participating stakeholders are already working to help identify solutions that could lead to more transparent and responsible supply chains for these metals.

While those who served on our stakeholder advisory group were not asked to endorse our report, they certainly helped shape it and we are hopeful that the process and results are beneficial as they work to define solutions.

What We Found
We did encounter significant data gaps and missing information about supplier relationships. Many suppliers failed to cooperate. The small-scale mining sector is informal, particularly in unstable regions, and penetrating this sector proved challenging. However, we knew that understanding the gaps in the supply chain was as important as recording the connections. Why is it so difficult to trace a supply chain completely? What do the gaps, non-response, and lack of cooperation tell us about which strategies could ensure a “clean,” sustainable supply chain?

In four cases we could document (or trace) a supply chain from an electronics manufacturer back to the mine of origin. This means we could trace the transactions, following a paper trail through contracts and relationships. Sometimes we could make links or fill in missing information because a few interested mining companies gave us data from their mines. This allowed us to track the supply chain from the other direction, starting from the mine of origin to the product.

We Found More
Companies and NGOs in other sectors have launched or are designing several interesting and innovative initiatives to increase transparency and responsible sourcing for minerals. Stakeholders in the electronics sector can learn from these programs.

For example, ICMM’s sustainable development framework provides a useful set of principles and guidelines for large-scale mine operators. Retailers can create their own supply chain transparency initiatives. Wal-Mart developed a program with a couple of mining companies to trace the gold and diamonds for its “Love, Earth” jewelry line. Tiffany & Co. and Birks have designed unique supply chain strategies. The Responsible Jewellery Council brings together industry participants at each step in the supply chain for jewelry with an eye towards designing social and environmental standards and a system to verify member compliance. The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) is working across sectors (industry and civil society) to determine standards for metals mining. The Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) focus on developing responsible gold and diamonds sources from the artisanal and small-scale mining sectors. These initiatives (and others analyzed in our report) have critics, but woven together, they can create a sustainability fabric, which offers hope (and a baseline) to those focusing on metals used in electronics.

What Is Next?
Many of the companies who responded to our survey are beginning to work on strategies to ensure that smelters can validate their sources as conflict free and in compliance with environmental and social norms. Smelters represent a key point of consolidation, or narrowing, in the supply chain. Others have begun to explore how to source responsibly from the DRC and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, in the hope that mining in the region can promote economic development, stability, and effective governance. Evidence from our research shows that pilots, testing, and learning, will be essential and that cross-sector collaboration is a key to success.

What Do You Think?
We designed our research so that it could foster collaborative discussion and problems solving. We believed that collaborative inquiry and relationship building was as important an outcome as was the supply chain findings. What do you think? Was this the right approach? What did we miss? What were the limitations? What still needs exploration and further inquiry? What are the next steps?

Join the conversation by visiting the project wiki, commenting on this blog post, or following me on twitter

Stephen D'Esposito

Another Picture From China

2009-09-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

Juliana explains the RESOLVE approach to public participation in China.

A picture from China

2009-09-14T08:26:00.001-07:00

A Chinese land use legal scholar and public interest lawyer,
Lisa Bova-Hiatt (New York City Law Department) and me
Juliana Birkhoff

Juliana's China Trip - Update 2

2009-09-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

An anthropology professor of mine once explained that culture shock proceeds through several phases:

Oh, My! What's This?
In the first phase you experience surprise, physical disorientation, and a strong emotional sense of how different are people's behaviour, language, appearance, and the surroundings.
We're Just the Same!
The second phase is characterized by recognition that we are all exactly the same. The differences that in phase one jumped out at you now seem trivial as our common experiences and goals come to the foreground.
They Are Totally Different!
In the third phase you begin to understand the beliefs, perceptions, and world views of the other culture. You realize that they are seeing and experiencing the world differently.
Integration
Finally culture shock subsides as you synthesize your reactions into some kind of understanding.

By the end of the delegation's visit to Shanghai, I realized that I have entered into stage two of culture shock. My struggles with chopsticks, food, language, and rituals are fading. I'm recognizing similar challenges and approaches for North Americans and Chinese.

In Shanghai, the delegation met with senior Chinese Communist party leaders, Shanghai city planners, law professors, housing administrators, and homeowners associations. Shanghai is growing and changing at an incredible pace. There are cranes, literally, on every block. Historic buildings are being demolished and new offices and malls replace them. Single story and mid level substandard housing is making way for skyscraper apartment buildings.

Shanghai leaders have developed impressive public participation processes. However just as in the U.S. and Canada they face challenges to early, meaningful, and efficient public participation. How do you involve people early in comprehensive planning when plans are large scale and conceptual? How do you move from public recommendations on for comprehensive plans to local development? What do you do with public input that focuses on past issues? Or people who won't participate because they are waiting for a better or separate deal?

I've been impressed with the strong commitment to transparency and participation. On the other hand I worry about the incredible scale, scope, and pace of development and redevelopment. How can people have a meaningful impact on the plans and projects that affect their lives?

Globalization, population growth, rural to urban migration, and environmental degradation are large forces. Can citizens provide input and make recommendations that really improve their living conditions? Or do people have to trust that for the most part government agencies
are trying to take care of health, education, and housing needs? How can governments involve citizens to efficiently address in common economic, social, and environmental problems?

As we move from Shanghai to Xian I am hoping to learn more from our Chinese hosts and to share our public participation experiences. I'm also hoping to discover the real differences in beliefs, behaviours, and ideas. I'm hoping in Xian I move into phase three of culture shock -- deepening my learning about public participation and land use in China.

Juliana Birkhoff

Juliana's China Trip - Update 1

2009-09-06T16:38:00.001-07:00

Land use and Public Participation in China

I landed in Shanghai on Saturday after a long flight. I am one of four prople in a land use and public participation delegation in China. We are here to present workshops, meet and discuss issues, and visit important land use sites.

The public participation project was organized by The National Committe on U.S. China relations. The National Committee is a private, non partisan, non profit organization dedicated to exchange, education, and shared learning. Our delegation includes a law expert in condemnation, an expert in public participation fr a public agency, and an expert in land use law. I'll talk more about them later.

Our route to China took us over Maine, Qurbec, Northern Canada, Northern Russia, Mongolia, and down to Shanghai. My last night in Washington was a blur of approving invoices and monthly reports, sending off meeting summaries for finished projects, draft agendas for meetings in September, and proposals to support a climate change project and a forestry collaborative. So it is not surprising that as I looked out my plane window I tried to imagine what the land look like, what the demographic changes would be, and what people below would be doing in a future shaped by different climate. Flying up the rocky Eastern North American coast I tried to see the storms, rising sea levels, and warmer weather. How would people in the resource dependent economies below respond? As we crossed over snow and ice I pictured inland seas, lakes, rock. And little towns in warmer inland areas.

Then my imagination failed me as we flew over Irkutz and Ulan Batar. I realized that I couldn't fantasize their new globally changed life without some vague idea of their lives now.

We flew for hours then over Mongolia without seeing any sign of villages, fields, or roads. My eyes closed and I fell asleep wondering how global climate change would affect the dry rocky terrain below me. I woke up over China seeing dams, towns, fields, and factories. My global change visions faded as my excitement grew. Global climate change is just the latest challenge. Human beings create a wide variety of economic, natural resource management, and social systems. I hope to hear some new ways to think about our challenges and my work. I also hope that my knowledge, skills, and experiences are helpful to my Chinese hosts as they address social, enonomic, and ecological challenges.

Juliana Birkhoff

Juliana's Going to China!

2009-09-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

Juliana Birkhoff, RESOLVE's Vice President of Programs and Practice, will be visiting China as part of a delegation to discuss land use and public participation. She'll be leaving September 4 and will be returning September 16.

While in China, Juliana will be blogging about her experiences.