Acting Civically

Civic engagement, defined as individual and collective action to identify public issues and participate in public life, has been a hotly contested subject in recent years. Beginning with a chapter by the editors that maps current key issues and main research questions, contributors to this volume counter claims of civic decline to show how, when, where, and why people act civically in multiple ways in various settings and contexts. From the local level of urban neighborhoods to the large scale institutions of health and higher education, this book documents how Americans actively shape public concerns. Attentive to matters of race and class, this book will be of interest to anyone who wants to gain a deeper understanding of civic engagement in relation to civil society and politics, and to its theory and practice. The book will be useful in a wide range of courses including those in Political Science, Sociology, Urban and Community Studies, Education, American Studies, Race and Ethnic Studies, and Nonprofit Studies.

About the Author :
SUSAN A. OSTRANDER is Professor of Sociology at Tufts University and author of Money for Change: Social Movement Philanthropy at Haymarket People's Fund (1995). KENT E. PORTNEY is Professor of Political Science at Tufts University and the author of Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities (2003). Both are members of the adjunct faculty of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts.

Review :
"Ostrander and Portney successfully illustrate what many have argued but few have demonstrated: Civic engagement knows no bounds. Political scientists, urban planners, sociologists, and public administrators often write as if civic engagement were a concept, or subject of research, specific to their discipline. The editors show not only their passion for the value of civic engagement but also their understanding that if we, as a community, care about the health of civil society, the vibrancy of the nonprofit sector, and the transparency of our political system, we need to be concerned about the level and quality of civic engagement taking place in our neighborhoods as well as in our public institutions." --Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly "This is an excellent addition to the burgeoning literature in the social sciences on social capital and civic engagement, more broadly conceived than the narrow voting and lobby focus . . . Highly Recommended." --Choice