The following readings, assigned for weeks 2 and 3, provide a useful starting point for the coursework:
- de Sousa Briggs, Xavier (1998). "Doing Democracy Up-Close: Culture, Power, and Communication in Community Building." Journal of Planning Education and Research 18(1) 1–13.
- Friedman, Will (2006). "Deliberative Democracy and the Problem of Scope." Journal of Public Deliberation 2(1): 1–29.
- Full Frame Initiative (2015). "The Five Domains of Wellbeing" (PDF).
- Gray, Stephen (2015).
"Boston Beyond Boundaries: A Geographically Democratic View" (PDF - 14 MB). - McDowell, Ceasar (2019). "Dialogue and Democratic Complexity" in Peter N. Stearns (ed.), Peacebuilding Through Dialogue: Education, Human Transformation, and Conflict Resolution. George Mason University. ASIN: B07JN367QW
- Stern, Mark J., Susan C. Seifert, and Dominic Vitiello (2008). "Migrants, Communities, and Culture" (PDF - 3.2 MB). Creativity & Change, January 2008.
- Susskind, Lawrence, and Liora Zion (2002). "Can America's Democracy Be Improved?" (PDF). Draft working paper of the Consensus Building Institute and the MIT–Harvard Public Disputes Program.