{"id":1820,"date":"2020-01-16T15:08:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T20:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/?page_id=1820"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:42:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:42:54","slug":"critical-conversation-2020","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/critical-conversations\/critical-conversation-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"A Critical Conversation 2020: Challenges to Evidence-based Policy Development in an Age of Public Polarization and Disengagement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        A Critical Conversation 2020: Challenges to Evidence-based Policy Development in an Age of Public Polarization and Disengagement\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<h3 id=\"a-critical-conversation-2020\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Critical Conversation 2020:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"challenges-to-evidence-based-policy-development-in-an-age-of-public-polarization-and-disengagement\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Challenges to Evidence-based Policy Development in an Age of Public Polarization and Disengagement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On February 20, 2020, we looked at the phenomenon of social-media amplified polarization in public discourse and growing distrust and disengagement by an increasingly frustrated and exhausted general public, and the challenges this poses for effective public policy administration.&nbsp; As the general public increasingly tunes out of important policy debates, they cede the floor to louder and more zealous voices with a zero-sum view of issues that makes them unwilling to see or accept the benefit of compromise. When this is accompanied by a growing distrust of experts and the evidence they bring to the table, the result is that effective information dissemination is undermined by more emotion-based, \u201cevidence-light\u201d argumentation. The result is often a polarization of vocal viewpoints around narrow extremes, making collaborative evidence-based policy development and administration less likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"resources\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Resources:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/220\/RGI_CC2020_Polarization_FinalReport.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Final Report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/220\/RGI-CC2020-Polarization_Paper.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Background Paper<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/220\/RGI-CC2020-Polarization_Agenda.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Agenda<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/220\/CC2020_Bios.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bios<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/220\/Unpacking-populism-and-polarization.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Unpacking Populism and Polarization<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/220\/Polarization-and-Myths_The-role-of-the-petroleum-sector-in-a-climate-change-era.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Polarization and Myths: The role of the petroleum sector in a climate change era<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Critical Conversation 2020: Challenges to Evidence-based Policy Development in an Age of Public Polarization and Disengagement On February 20, 2020, we looked at the phenomenon of social-media amplified polarization in public discourse and growing distrust and disengagement by an increasingly frustrated and exhausted general public, and the challenges this poses for effective public policy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":336,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[44],"class_list":["post-1820","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","cu_page_type-critical-conversation-reports"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1820"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2110,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1820\/revisions\/2110"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/rgi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=1820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}