Note-taking as communication design: promoting democratic processes

ABSTRACT

Whereas notes are ubiquitous to democratic meeting designs, note-taking practices within public participation processes remain taken-for-granted. We argue that note-taking is a communication practice that calls for cultivating expertise and critical reflexivity. Employing Communication as Design (CAD) we analyze communication design logics for note-taking active in public processes and the problems encountered enacting these design logics. CAD analysis illuminates four design logics underpinned by democratic values: notes as summary, data points, quotables, and critical voice. Building from this empirical analysis, democratic note-takers must be sensitive to the need for coordinating design logics to process goals; yet multiple design logics are often necessary to uphold multiple democratic values.

KEYWORDS:

• Note-taking
• functions of notes
• democratic meeting design
• communication design logics
• public deliberation
• practical theory as engaged reflection

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Laura Black, Martín Carcasson, Phaedra Pezzullo, Debbie Dougherty, and the anonymous reviewers for their input on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In their reporting, the city counts a ‘graduate student’ climate dialogue as separate from the ‘graduate climate researchers’ dialogue, which is part of our analysis and where the first author served as note-taker.

2 Dialogue participants, PPWG members, and city staff monikers are pseudonyms.