What is CAPE?
CAPE, the Center for Advances in Public Engagement, is dedicated to engaging citizens more fully in public life. CAPE takes a leading role in a field dedicated to promoting new and better ways for citizens to confront pressing public problems, and to close the gap between leaders, experts and the public in the search for solutions. It is dedicated to re-engaging the larger public on important public matters, to create the possibility for dialogue that gets beneath the “snapshot” or “knee-jerk” views of public sentiment. Research is also an important part of CAPE, and has three focal points: the Public Engagement Research Project, to better understand the dynamics and impacts of public engagement; the Digital Engagement Project, to explore the potentials of the Internet as a vehicle of engagement; and the Theory Building Project, to decisively push forward the theory that underlies the field’s efforts.
