Practitioners, academics, public officials, funders, and others are gathering in downtown Boston today for the Third Annual Conference in Civic Studies at Tisch College, Tufts University. Its title is “Frontiers of Democracy: Innovations in Civic Practice, Theory, and Education.”

The event is being organized by Peter Levine of CIRCLE/Tisch College, Nancy Thomas of the Democracy Imperative, and Matt Leighninger of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium. Attendees will explore three main themes:

• Engaging–and being engaged by–the online public: How are online technologies being incorporated into democratic governance and education?
• The “neutrality” challenge: Concerns over neutrality challenge educators and practitioners alike. In public life, the question is how to balance the commitment to a politically neutral process with the desire to achieve more equitable outcomes. In the classroom, the question is how to present all perspectives on an issue yet take a definitive stance in an effort to educate for democracy. What are the politics of neutrality, on campus and in public life?
• What role is there for innovative theory in civic practice? For example: how might Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel-prize-winning research on “common pool resources” help citizens, public officials, and other leaders share the work of sustaining deliberative democracy?

Paula Ellis, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, and Damian Thorman, National Program Director, are representing Knight Foundation at the conference. Thorman is now participating in the learning exchange on online engagement focused on the question “What are the frontiers of innovation in online engagement?”. Ellis will be chairing a plenary session called “New developments in the field”, to include: Chris Gates, Pace; Val Ramos, Everyday Democracy; Martin Carcasson, Colorado State University; Linda Nguyen, Alliance for Children and Families; Christine Tillmann, Bertelsmann Foundation; and Mike Huggins, city manager, Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

You can follow the conference on Twitter using the #demfront hashtag.