In this collection of original essays, empirical analysts and theorists across disciplines turn a critical eye to a variety of recent institutional forms and styles of innovation. They examine lived reality and theoretical underpinning, promise and accomplishment, but also the pitfalls and capacity-building challenges that face virtually all attempts to bring citizen voice, knowledge, and skill to the center of public problem solving. Their analyses are both hopeful and hard-headed and are guided by commitments to help understand appropriate fit and realistic sustainability. Cases include face-to-face deliberation, online networking and citizen journalism, policy forums, and community and stakeholder planning sessions across local, state and federal contexts. Policy issues run a broad gamut from community and regional economic development and environmental sustainability to minority rights and gay marriage.

CONTENTS Jennifer Girouard and Carmen Sirianni, IntroductionElena Fagotto and Archon Fung, Embedding Public Deliberation in Community GovernanceAnne Taufen Wessells, Ways of Knowing the Los Angeles River Watershed: Getting from Engaged Participation to Inclusive DeliberationJason Corburn, Civic Innovation, Deliberation, and Health Impact Assessment: Democratic Planning and Civic Engagement in San FranciscoDaniel Kreiss and Laura Meadows, Intramovement Agenda Setting: Nationalizing North Carolina's Fight to Defeat an Anti-Gay Marriage Constitutional Amendment Lewis A. Friedland, Civic Communication in a Networked Society: Seattle's Emergent Ecology Caroline W. Lee, Accounting for Diversity in Collaborative Governance: An Institutional Approach to Empowerment ReformsRobert M. Fishman, Networks and Narratives in the Making of Civic Practice: Lessons from IberiaThamy Pogrebinschi, Turning Participation into Representation: Innovative Policy Making for Minority Groups in BrazilCarmen Sirianni, Bringing the State Back in through Collaborative Governance: Emergent Mission and Practice at the US Environmental Protection Agency Jane Mansbridge, A Systemic Approach to Civic Action