Adolescents' Civic Engagement: Concordant and Longitudinal Associations Among Civic Beliefs and Civic Involvement

Associations between adolescent civic and organized activities (volunteering, standard political, social movement, school/community, religious) and civic beliefs (comprised of should, obligation, and respect judgments) were examined. Cross‐sectional models (N = 703, M_age = 15.87) indicated domain specificity between adolescent civic beliefs and behaviors. Longitudinal models (n = 219, M_age = 15.39) indicated that adolescents' standard political beliefs predicted greater levels of standard political involvement one year later, and school/community activities predicted greater standard political beliefs a year later. Youth volunteering predicted lower standard political beliefs, and standard political involvement predicted lower community service beliefs one year later. Findings support the assessment of adolescent sociomoral civic beliefs and demonstrate how civic experiences and civic beliefs can mutually promote each other during adolescence.     

Training for Civic Leadership

In this article, the authors offer social studies educators a way to deepen students' understanding of civil disobedience as a democratic and nonviolent means of instigating social change. The authors explore the concept of civil disobedience from a historical perspective and examine the justifications and ramifications of each historical example. In addition, they provide several examples of events that are often mistakenly categorized as civil disobedience. Through these examples, the authors develop a sound definition of the concept, while explaining its application to contemporary society. In actualizing the significance of civil disobedience in the secondary social studies classroom, the authors use five components: the historical importance of civil disobedience, the concept of civil disobedience, the argument for civil disobedience, the argument against civil disobedience, and teaching about civil disobedience. They also incorporate civil disobedience into a lesson plan.     

Civic Community in Small‐Town America: How Civic Welfare Is Influenced by Local Capitalism and Civic Engagement*

Abstract The aims of this paper are twofold: first, to gain a fuller understanding of factors that foster community cohesion and contribute to the residents' social and economic well‐being; and, second, to move beyond previous research that used larger spatial units such as states, counties, or aggregates of counties and to focus instead on American small towns (population 2,500–20,000). The data on small towns are drawn from public‐use files and from confidential microdata from various economic censuses. From these sources we construct measures of locally oriented firms, self‐employment, business establishments that serve as gathering places, and associations. The local capitalism and civic engagement variables generally perform as hypothesized; in some cases they are related quite strongly to civic welfare outcomes such as income levels, poverty rates, and nonmigration rates. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working with place‐level data and suggest some strategies for subsequent work on small towns and other incorporated places.     

Civic engagement among student veterans

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess participation rates in civic volunteering among service member and veteran students. Participants: Data for the present cross-sectional study were obtained from the American College Health Association’s (ACHA) 2011–2014 National College Health Assessment II (NCHA). Methods: Demographic characteristics of the study sample were explored by calculating frequencies and percentages by military service status. Research questions were explored with either Fisher’s exact test or maximum likelihood multiple logistic regression. Results: Service member and veteran students were more likely to engage in volunteerism than their non-veteran counterparts. Additionally, student veterans and non-veteran students reported that engagement in volunteer efforts both reduces their feelings of depression and increases their use of mental health services. Conclusion: The findings of this research suggest that the promotion of civic engagement and participation in volunteerism for service member and veteran students on college campuses might contribute to successful reintegration outcomes.     

The Politics of Civic Combinations

In this article, we explore the ways in which partnerships with the state within state-led developmental programs might effect the autonomy of civic organizations (COs) and their readiness to enter in political action. To identify the relationship between collaboration with the state and civic autonomy we draw on data from a survey of 740 Hungarian regional civic associations. We did not find support for the theses that mixing with the state might undermine the autonomy of COs and lead to their political neutralization. Also, we did not find support for the hypotheses that political action is solely about money or it is the property of non-autonomous NGOs. We have identified several mechanisms that allow COs to combine participation in partnership projects with maintained autonomy and political activism.

Gender and the Transmission of Civic Engagement: Assessing the Influences on Youth Civic Activity*

The study of civic activity has become a central focus for many social scientists over the past decade, generating considerable research and debate. Previous studies have largely overlooked the role of youth socialization into civic life, most notably in the settings of home and school. Further, differences along gender lines in civic capacity have not been given sufficient attention in past studies. This study adds to the literature by examining the potential pathways in the development of youth civic activity and potential, utilizing both gender‐neutral and gender‐specific structural equation modeling of data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey. Results indicate that involvement by parents in their child’s schooling plays a crucial, mediating role in the relationship between adult and youth civic activity. Gender differences are minimal; thus adult school involvement is crucial for transmitting civic culture from parents to both female and male youth.     

From Civic Participation to Political Participation

This study examines the long-held argument that civic participation transfers to political participation, as expressed by South Korean citizens. Compared to the majority of existing research that has focused primarily on Western developed countries, the present study examines South Korea, to which little scholarly attention has been devoted. Relying on the World Values Survey (2005–2006 wave), the present study finds that in South Korea, civic participation outside of the political sphere does push individuals to be more politically active. However, the results also demonstrate that there are more questions that need to be resolved. First, when the analysis unpacked the dependent variable—political participation—the relationship between civic engagement and attending demonstrations or signing petitions is robust. However, this is not the case for joining boycotts or taking part in voting. Moreover, when unpacking the independent variable—civic participation—this study finds that not every type of civic organization spawns political participation. There is a positive impact of non-political organizations, such as art, music, or charitable organizations, on political participation, while a negative impact exists for interest-based and political organizations, such as professional associations or environmental organizations.     

Civic responsibility in a risk democracy

The National Research Council advocates for what they term a risk democracy, in which risk issues require community decision-making based on dialogue. This essay focuses on the promotion of civic responsibility in a risk democracy. Award-winning public awareness campaigns are analyzed to demonstrate how community partnerships and civic responsibility can improve community resilience. First, the role of a community in an emergency is discussed; second, the current focus of the Department of Homeland Security on prevention rather than preparation as illuminated by interviews with emergency managers is critically examined; and finally, public awareness campaigns are presented to show how personal and civic responsibility can assist in emergency planning and response.     

Rural Housing Adequacy and Civic Structure

One persistent problem that many small rural towns face is housing adequacy, which encompasses interior and exterior structural conditions; assessments of heating, cooling, and sanitation systems; and residence size relative to space needs. The creation and reproduction of vibrant rural communities is grounded in the capacity of citizens to solve local housing problems. We posit that towns with strong norms of mutuality, high information flows, and inclusive behaviors have a civic structure that produces the capacity to frame and resolve housing concerns. We find that perceptions of civic structure are a significant factor in explaining the variation in rural housing adequacy, net of income, age, and tenure. This implies that the social and political environment is an important influence on the quality of housing stock found in rural places.     

University Civic Engagement with Community-Based Organizations

Abstract

This article compares and contrasts two case studies of large research universities involved in civic engagement projects with urban nonprofit community-based organizations and neighborhood associations. The article uses a community building framework in which organizational, interorganizational, and community-level features are examined. The study found that each university used a different approach through which to achieve a university-community partnership. A dispersed model favored an entrepreneurial approach for individual faculty and student involvement, while the coordinated model requested faculty and students from different departments to work together toward a community-driven goal. The extent to which these different models of civic engagement delivered what community organizations wanted was based on five factors: (1) the university's geographic proximity to a tar get low-income neighborhood, (2) leadership for institutional social commitment, (3) use of community-based research, (4) funding as a social strategy, and (5) a flexible curriculum. Challenges faced by faculty, students, and practitioners are addressed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

How a Nonprofitness Orientation Influences Collective Civic Action: The Effects of Civic Engagement and Political Participation

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This research addresses the question of how the institutional frame of “nonprofitness” shapes the civic...     

Reading Scandal: Civic Gothic as Genre

This article proposes that recent media accounts of the "priest pedophile" employ a conventional Gothic mode as frame. The binary split into sentimentalized victims and demonized adults stabilizes a narrative that verges toward incoherency for reasons of genre form, readerly investment, and factual inaccessibility. In addition, because of a bias built-in, as it were, to all genre narrative, the Gothic frame silently consolidates political or cultural conclusions that are sometimes far removed from the sexual drama supposedly under investigation. Such genre "flattening" undergirds most media forms in commodity exchange culture; it is not specific to scandal or unique to this cycle of priests and children. Nonetheless, the rubric of scandal-and the priest-child trope in particular-displays the effects of genre-manipulation in a concentrated form. Thus, in "reading scandal," more important than the predictable division of heroes and villains, monsters and innocents, are the mechanics of representation by which a public ceremony of outrage and shame positions itself as a neutral agent of civic work while erasing the implications of this positioning.     

Organizational Culture in Civic Associations in Russia

The organizational culture of nonprofit organizations is affected by the context in which they are embedded. Based on a qualitative study of local civic associations in Novosibirsk, Russia, this article illustrates how nonprofit organizational culture has been shaped by historical and contemporary social and cultural conditions. The fluid situation for civil society in Russia has generated varied organizational culture across nonprofits. Interview data reveal different value orientations, distinct group identities, and different images of the ideal civic association: as a social establishment, as an outlet for self-expression, as a network of experts, or as a social startup. This resulting diversity of organizational culture has implications for the potential for partnerships among nonprofits, between nonprofits and government, between nonprofits and businesses, and also for the organizational survival of nonprofits in this setting.