Informing public process. Intercultural communication in public participation for decision making: The Vancouver case

Rendering effective public participation processes equitably accessible to all different ethnocultural group members presents a significant challenge to public participation process designers and administrators.;The goal of this research project is to identify aspects of intentional public participation process design which are affected by the variables introduced when intercultural communication is necessary. The information yielded from literature reviews of both Intercultural Communication and Public Participation are synthesized, then tested ‘on the ground’ through a City of Vancouver case study. This is a policy research paper, which seeks to undertake preliminary exploratory research to inform process administrators, and to indicate areas for further research. The research question for this work includes a primary question, and five ancillary questions: What is the relationship between public participation and intercultural communication? (a) What is the state of literature on public participation in decision-making? (b) What is the state of literature on intercultural communication? (c) What commonalities and parallels emerge from comparison of the two? (d) How may those commonalities and parallels be observed ‘on the ground’? (e) What preliminary conclusions about process design and delivery emerge? (Abstract shortened by UMI.).