Reinventing Citizenship As Public Work

"In recent years, calls for citizenship education have multiplied in response to widespread lack of civic and political knowledge and the degradation of public culture. Approaches to educating citizens come chiefly in two forms: improving civics education and increasing service and volunteerism. In this study for the Kettering Foundation, Harry Boyte examines how these two approaches fail to recognize the power of citizens in work and the workplace." --Kettering Foundation web site

Today Americans feel powerless in the face of problems on every front. Such feelings are acute in higher education, where educators are experiencing an avalanche of changes: cost cutting, new technologies, and demands that higher education be narrowly geared to the needs of today's workplace. College graduates face mounting debt and uncertain job prospects, and worry about a coarsening of the mass culture and the erosion of authentic human relationships. Higher education is increasingly seen, and often portrays itself, as a ticket to individual success--a private good, not a public one. Democracy's Education grows from the American Commonwealth Partnership, a year-long project to revitalize the democratic narrative of higher education that began with an invitation to Harry Boyte from the White House to put together a coalition aimed at strengthening higher education as a public good. The project was launched at the beginning of 2012 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act, which created land grant colleges. Beginning with an essay by Harry C. Boyte, "Reinventing Citizenship as Public Work," which challenges educators and their partners to claim their power to shape the story of higher education and the civic careers of students, the collection brings world-famous scholars, senior government officials, and university presidents together with faculty, students, staff, community organizers, and intellectuals from across the United States and South Africa and Japan. Contributors describe many constructive responses to change already taking place in different kinds of institutions, and present cutting-edge ideas like "civic science," "civic studies," "citizen professionalism," and "citizen alumni." Authors detail practical approaches to making change, from new faculty and student roles to changes in curriculum and student life and strategies for everyday citizen empowerment. Overall, the work develops a democratic story of education urgently needed to address today's challenges, from climate change to growing inequality.

In the face of authoritarian, divisive trends and multiplying crises, when politics-as-usual is stymied, Awakening Democracy through Public Work shows it is possible to build foundations for a democratic awakening grounded in deep American traditions of a citizen-centered commonwealth. Awakening Democracy through Public Work begins with the story of Public Achievement, a youth civic education and empowerment initiative with roots in the civil rights movement. It describes Public Achievement's first home in St. Bernard's, a low-income Catholic elementary school in St. Paul, Minnesota, and how the program spread across the country and then abroad, giving birth to the larger concept of public work. In Public Achievement, young people practice "citizen politics" as they tackle issues ranging from bullying, racism, and sexual harassment to playground improvements, curriculum changes, and better school lunches. They develop everyday political skills for working across differences and making constructive change. Such citizen politics, more like jazz than a set piece of music, involves the interplay and negotiation of diverse interests and views, sometimes contentious, sometimes harmonious. Public Achievement highlights young people's roles as co-creators—builders of schools, communities, and democratic society. They are not citizens in waiting, but active citizens who do public work. Awakening Democracy through Public Work also describes how public work can find expression in many kinds of work, from education and health to business and government. It is relevant across the sweep of society. People have experimented with the idea of public work in hundreds of settings in thirty countries, from Northern Ireland and Poland to Ghana and Japan. In Burundi it birthed a national initiative to rework relations between villagers and police. In South Africa it helped people in poor communities to see themselves as problem solvers rather than simply consumers of government services. In the US, at Denison University, public work is being integrated into dorm life. At Maxfield School in St. Paul, it is transforming special education. In rural Missouri, it led to the "emPowerU" initiative of the Heartland Foundation, encouraging thousands of young people to stay in the region. In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, it generated "Clear Vision," a program providing government support for citizen-led community improvements. Public work has expanded into the idea of "citizen professionals" working with other citizens, not on them or for them. It has also generated the idea of "civic science," in which scientists see themselves as citizens and science as a resource for civic empowerment. Awakening Democracy through Public Work shows that we can free the productive powers of people to work across lines and differences to build a better society and create grounded hope for the future.

The Routledge Handbook of Developments in Digital Journalism Studies offers a unique and authoritative collection of essays that report on and address the significant issues and focal debates shaping the innovative field of digital journalism studies. In the short time this field has grown, aspects of journalism have moved from the digital niche to the digital mainstay, and digital innovations have been ‘normalized’ into everyday journalistic practice. These cycles of disruption and normalization support this book’s central claim that we are witnessing the emergence of digital journalism studies as a discrete academic field. Essays bring together the research and reflections of internationally distinguished academics, journalists, teachers, and researchers to help make sense of a reconceptualized journalism and its effects on journalism’s products, processes, resources, and the relationship between journalists and their audiences. The handbook also discusses the complexities and challenges in studying digital journalism and shines light on previously unexplored areas of inquiry such as aspects of digital resistance, protest, and minority voices. The Routledge Handbook of Developments in Digital Journalism Studies is a carefully curated overview of the range of diverse but interrelated original research that is helping to define this emerging discipline. It will be of particular interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students studying digital, online, computational, and multimedia journalism.

This insightful Handbook is an essential guide to educational policy around the world. As shifting geopolitics, intensified climate change, and widening economic inequalities persist, the need for informed educational policy is critical.

This book articulates a path for a renewed conception of-and commitment to-the public dimensions of schooling. It is an interdisciplinary book of philosophy and politics, written for educational leaders working in or on behalf of public schooling. Publics for Public Schools introduces a fresh view on how educational leaders might view the public ideal. In this conception of public work and leadership, educational leaders do not work with the public but help to achieve publics for public schools. The demos, or "the people" in the case of democratic governance of schools, mobilize around particular problems related to young people and schooling; they are best understood not as "the public" but as multiple publics. This book provides a conception of public life and of public leadership that can enable educational leaders of all types to help achieve publics for their schools.

Contemporary public policy challenges are increasingly called “wicked problems,” or problems that cannot be solved by one sector or one agency of government alone. Solutions to wicked problems often further require the recognition and acceptance of tradeoffs or drawbacks, which might include a cost or sacrifice for the whole of society or a subsection of society. Based on the premise that government of, by, and for the people is not sufficient to rise to and meet wicked public policy problems, this volume provides strategies and ideas for public administration educators across diverse environments, as well as undergraduate and graduate education, to include and integrate the principles of “with the people” in public administration education and practice. This book explores the ways that notions of governing with citizens can be integrated into courses that focus on public administration and policy. It invites instructors to think about what it means to be educators within higher education institutions in a democratic society, championing deliberation and engagement as a way to prepare students for professional roles in their communities. Each chapter is written by a contributor who has road-tested the inclusion of democratic ideals and principles in their own classrooms, and each chapter therefore provides blueprints, curriculum plans, and lesson plans for the integration of democratic principles in public administration education and practice. Teaching Democratic Ideals to Public Affairs Students is essential reading for faculty in public administration, public policy, and political science departments, and it will also be a useful guidebook for practicing public administrators, as well as those who provide training to practicing administrators and leaders.