Principles

A commitment to principled engagement

Over the course of this project, my aim is to explore a broad range of political views, deeply held values, and cultures as I seek to understand what we care the most about, what we hold in common, where we differ, and how that leads us to our voting choices. I recognise and respect that I am asking you to share your personal views and that these views can be contentious. I am grateful to anyone who will speak with me and am committed to the following principles in order to promote broader dialogue while protecting your confidentiality.

Principles

1. Confidentiality

I will keep your identity and personal details confidential. My intent is to discuss, write about, and share (in various formats) what I am hearing and learning. Unless we create an agreement in writing, all contributions (interview commentary, conversational anecdotes, quotes and any other contributions from participants) will be kept anonymous. I will need to keep track of your details for my records and to be able to contact you, but that information will be held confidentially. I will not attribute quotes, information or any other contributions in any way that can be linked back to your person.

2. Non-violence

I will adhere to, and request that any participants adhere to, the principle of non-violence. The impetus of this project comes from a place of wanting to contribute to a strong social fabric by facilitating understanding of and respect for diverse views. I desire no harm to come to anyone through the course of this project. As such, regardless of whether I agree with your voting choices or not, I cannot accept hate speech, derogatory comments, or blatant disrespect. Language that is hateful, demonises people, or judges people in ugly ways will not be supported, and I may ask you to restate what you share with me if I have concerns about the language. I am not seeking 'political correctness' at the expense of honesty and frank conversation, I am seeking to be respectful of people and their choices. Please be frank, in a respectful way.

3. Transparency into and disclosure of my own bias

My commitment is that I will make an effort to be aware of my own biases and acknowledge them to you up front. We all hold biases, and these biases shape how we think about the world around us. I respect your biases as well and trust that they are rooted in values, beliefs, and experiences that are important to you. By disclosing my bias, I hope that it will help us to have an open conversation. I am happy for you to pause an interview or conversation at any time to check my bias on a topic, and I will endeavour to acknowledge my biases to you.

DISCLOSURE OF MY BIAS

I am generally a 'left-leaning' voter, but my choices are not 100% party-aligned on an issue-by-issue basis (i.e. frequently choosing Democrat in the US, but may prefer Labor, Green or Liberal parties in Australia depending on the situation). I tend to favour: social inclusivity, the Arts as a vital part of healthy communities and education (i.e. STEAM), community-based and local initiatives, effort at all scales (global, national, regional, state, community and micro-local) to minimise human impact on climate change, reduction of dependence on petroleum-based products, robust commerce, entrepreneurship and employment opportunity (mixed with wariness of unregulated capitalism), socialised health care, reticence to engage in war and measured military intervention, national fiscal conservatism (e.g. not carrying debt), and the mother's choice with respect to abortion.