“One useful definition of civic engagement is the following: individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern. Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual voluntarism to organizational involvement to electoral participation. It can include efforts to directly address an issue, work with others in a community to solve a problem or interact with the institutions of representative democracy. Civic engagement encompasses a range of specific activities such as working in a soup kitchen, serving on a neighborhood association, writing a letter to an elected official or voting. Indeed, an underlying principal of our approach is that an engaged citizen should have the ability, agency and opportunity to move comfortably among these various types of civic acts.”

Source: Michael X Delli Carpini, Dean Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, former Director, Public Policy, The Pew Charitable Trusts

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“Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.
– Preface

A morally and civically responsible individual recognizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore considers social problems to be at least partly his or her own; such an individual is willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate.”
– Introduction

Excerpts from Civic Responsibility and Higher Education, edited by Thomas Ehrlich, published by Oryx Press, 2000.

Civic engagement is comprised of individual and collective efforts or processes designed to identify and address community needs and issues of public concern.  In a democracy, all segments of the community – businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, and individual residents – can and should be involved in civic engagement activities.

Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual volunteerism to organizational involvement to electoral participation.  It may involve individual action or group processes that result in positive community change and decision making that is more reflective of community needs and desires.

Taking responsibility for one’s own actions within the community and working to build an awareness of systematic positive change through activities such as directly addressing an issue, working with others in a community to identify and solve problems, interacting with — and influencing – public and private decision makers, and developing skills through training and workshops that foster strong leadership are all examples of how one can become more civically engaged.

The Community Challenge

We live in an age where we have available to us so many of the tools, and traditions, and wisdom from the ages, and updated wisdom with the technologies that we have at our fingertips. We live, in my view unquestionably, in absolutely remarkable times and what I feel that those times need in order for us to best be the agents of conscious evolution that we can be, for us to be the people that can shape the processes, the systems, and the culture, the politics, and the agreements that we keep together to create the best possible outcomes for the greatest number of people. You know, 7.3 billion of us and rising, so that all of us are closer to the opportunity that Maslow talked about, to self-actualize, all of us are closer to living in peace, and prosperity, and abundance, and happiness. I’m really interested how we actually make that happen, I’m really interested what these times allow us to do that hasn’t previously been possible in human history.

Jack Butler, The Conscious Change Agent 

To instill an ethic of service we must not only be committed to serving the community, we must understand how and why it mattersto be committed to service. Every action we perform each day has a consequence, direct or indirect, somewhere on the planet.

As we learn about global systems, resource use, trade, international refugees, shantytowns and other human geography topics, we move further from the perspective of a single individual, and gain an understanding of how “I” as an individual fits into the undeniable global scheme. We see the interconnections between ourselves and our local, national, and global politics, economics, the environment, and so on. This is the ethic of commitment, born out of everyday life. It is the way we interact and associate with one another, everyday, on all levels, in all realms of our lives. No matter how individualistic or isolated we might want to be, we are in some way, interdependent with, or connected to those directly around us, as well as those about whom we have not given a thought.

Citizenship on a planetary scale is an enormous task, yet the overall benefits are worthwhile.

Elizabeth Larson-Keagy, PhD, Executive Editor; The Journal for Civic Commitment

To develop a sense of universal responsibility – of the universal dimension of our every act and of the equal rights of all others to happiness and not to suffer – is to develop an attitude of mind whereby, when we see an opportunity to benefit others, we will take it in preference to merely looking after our own narrow interests. We accept this as a part of nature and concern ourselves with doing what we can.This path helps us “become sensitive to all others – not just those closest to us. We come to see the need to care especially for those members of the human family who suffer most. We recognize the need to avoid causing divisiveness among our fellow human beings. And we become aware of the overwhelming importance of contentment.

Lack of contentment comes down to greed, and sows the seed of envy and aggressive competitiveness, and leads to a culture of excessive materialism” become the context for all kinds of social ills which bring suffering to all members of the community.

The Dalai Lama 

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What are your thoughts about civic engagement? Send your comments to Kosmos Digital Editor Rhonda Fabian – rfabian@kosmosjournal.org, or comment below.