Boston Invites Community to Set a 'Civic' Research Agenda | Episode 7
The Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, a research and development lab for city hall, develops new and creative ways to provide better services for the city’s residents. About a year ago, the office published the first volume of its Civic Research Agenda. In some respects, the document follows the trend of federal agencies publishing learning or evidence-building agendas. But Boston’s Civic Research Agenda doesn’t look like a formal government document: it’s colorful, with large font, photos, and cartoon-like illustrations. The authors also use personal pronouns to make it clear that Boston’s “new urban mechanics” want to have a conversation with you, the reader. The language is strategic: they want to welcome you in as a participant in deciding what local public policy issues to address, what questions to ask about them, and how to answer them. In this episode of On the Evidence, we discuss the Civic Research Agenda’s one year anniversary with three members of the New Urban Mechanics team: Nigel Jacob, the office’s co-chair and cofounder; Sabrina Dorsainvil, the office’s director of civic design; and Kim Lucas, the office’s civic research director. We also have a condensed Q&A version of the conversation available here: https://www.mathematica-mpr.com/commentary/boston-invites-community-to-set-a-civic-research-agenda