Engaging Communities Through Uncertainty: Exploring the Role of Local Governance as a Way of Facilitating Postnormal Polylogues

Abstract

The Sunshine Coast Council (SCC) and the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), in south-east Queensland Australia, have undertaken a collaborative research project to investigate multi-modal approaches to community engagement. This project posits that society is now operating and evolving in the context of postnormal times and seeks to test the notion of polylogues as a way to navigate uncertainty. Here, the authors discuss the manner in which the COVID19 pandemic impacted their research agenda, present some preliminary findings and highlight opportunities to more deeply explore the manner with which postnormal times impacts traditional notions of subjectivity and community.

Keywords:

• Community engagement
• digital engagement
• local governance
• polylogues
• postnormal times
• subjectivity