Elena Sánchez‐Nielsen and Carolina Martín‐Vázquez
debates on the policy‐making process on the topic of immigration. The questions designed for the online debate from an appreciative approach have been the most visited, and are those that promoted greater volume of comments. This demonstrates that the structure and narrative of appreciative questions have the capacity to promote the active participation of users. Firstly, it is noted that appreciative questions versus nonappreciative questions are related to different types of narrative used. Thus, responses to appreciative questions are perceived as a narrative focused on solutions, while responses to non‐appreciative questions are seen as a narrative focused on complaints. Secondly, another characteristic of the type of response provoked by appreciative questions refers to the degree of empowerment, showing a tendency to elicit internalist responses, i. e. responses, in which, people take control and responsibility for change. As a result, appreciative questions elicit a more proactive and internalist type of discourse and, at the same time, one more focused on solutions.
We expected to find a measure of association between the type of question and the tense used that confirmed the principle of anticipation, but the results show no difference: the future tense is used to a greater extent, regardless of the question formulated. This makes us think that the anticipatory principle, which is projecting into the future, by itself, does not reflect specific aspects of the appreciative approach, since this projection can have positive or negative valences.
We also detected, during the process, the importance of the role and training of the facilitators. The questions they propose establish the action line that the responses can follow. Therefore, their role and training is vital to foster and vitalize constructive discourses.
To date, the main achievements from PbP uDebate using the AI model in the two local municipalities have been the definition of a set of goals to be performed. These goals include, for instance, improving the image of the neighborhood and contributing to its transformation into a leader in diversity management; strengthening partnerships between neighbors and social actors; encouraging the neighbors to participate in cleaning up the area; strengthening social bonds within the neighborhood; creating a friendly and participatory environment, and promoting accessibility by removing language barriers. Finally, one of the main advantages of the use of this AI model is that it can be used in any kind of online debate and topic.
Acknowledgements
The work presented in this paper has been funded in part by the European Union under Grant N º 256261( Puzzled by Policy – CIP‐ICT‐PSP‐2009‐3bis) and by the Spanish Government under the project TIN2011‐24598.
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