The Rules of Engagement

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Berger
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
International Level ◽  
Moral Engagement

This chapter discusses the shortcomings of the term “civic engagement” and argues that it must be reconceptualized as its constituent parts: political, social, and moral engagement—concepts that are better equipped to clarify and enhance our discourse about making democracy work. It shows how and why the term “civic engagement” quickly rose to prominence, illustrating its meteoric rise and the confusion that accompanies its widespread use. It contends that civic engagement has remained popular, influential, and ultimately misleading, in part due to the word “engagement,” which entails a combination of activity and attention, an investment of energy and a consciousness of purpose. The chapter also distinguishes among political engagement, social engagement, and moral engagement—distinctions that tend to be neglected in civic engagement scholarship—and provides examples of each type. Finally, it differentiates among engagement undertaken at the local, national, and international level, each of which involves unique challenges, commitments, and rewards.

Conclusion

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Berger
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Moral Engagement

This book has argued that civic engagement is a hopelessly confusing term and therefore should give way to political, social, and moral engagement. It has also critiqued idealistic conceptions of participatory democracy for aiming for the Full Monty: high and widespread political engagement among all citizens, all (or much) of the time, in spite of citizens' long-standing inclinations toward the opposite. Some idealistic theories of democracy, the Full Monty versions, have asked too much of citizens' tastes, attention, and energy. This concluding chapter proposes three approaches to improving democracy that conform to Alexis de Tocqueville's premises and insights: changing our approach to politics and political mobilization, changing ourselves, and changing our institutions.

The role of national identification in explaining political and social civic engagement

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843022096797
Author(s):  
Mirjana Rupar ◽  
Maciej Sekerdej ◽  
Katarzyna Jamróz-Dolińska
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Self Report ◽  
National Identification ◽  
The Relationship

The present research examines the relationship between distinct forms of national identification—constructive patriotism, conventional patriotism, and glorification—and both political and social engagement. Three correlational studies were conducted in Poland. In Study 1 ( N = 234) and Study 2 ( N = 316), using self-report measures, it was found that constructive patriotism positively predicts both forms of civic engagement. Conventional patriotism positively predicted social engagement (Studies 1 and 3). Glorification negatively predicted political engagement. Study 3 ( N = 969) supported the link between these different forms of national identification and political and social engagement, using both self-report and behavioural measures of civic engagement. The findings suggest that national identification can both promote and deter civic engagement.

Does Social Media Engagement Translate to Civic Engagement Offline?

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402199944
Author(s):  
Jaclyn Piatak ◽  
Ian Mikkelsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
Informal Volunteering ◽  
Using Data

People increasingly engage in politics on social media, but does online engagement translate to offline engagement? Research is mixed with some suggesting how one uses the internet maters. We examine how political engagement on social media corresponds to offline engagement. Using data following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, we find the more politically engaged people are on social media, the more likely they are to engage offline across measures of engagement—formal and informal volunteering, attending local meetings, donating to and working for political campaigns, and voting. Findings offer important nuances across types of civic engagement and generations. Although online engagement corresponds to greater engagement offline in the community and may help narrow generational gaps, this should not be the only means to promote civic participation to ensure all have a voice and an opportunity to help, mobilize, and engage.

Political Engagement as Instrumental Good

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Berger
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Democracy In America

This chapter examines Alexis de Tocqueville's defense of political engagement as instrumental good. Tocqueville's insights on attention and energy and their importance for sustainable self-government comprise one of his more original—and overlooked—contributions to political theory. Tocqueville actually distinguishes between political and social engagement, explains why political attention and energy will probably founder in most liberal democracies, and proposes a number of avenues for resisting those tendencies. The chapter analyzes Tocqueville's views on political engagement and the obstacles it faces when citizens are free to invest their time and resources as they like. Drawing mostly from his book Democracy in America, the discussion focuses on his arguments regarding citizens' energies, individual and collective energy, the “doctrine of self-interest well understood,” political attention, township administration, and political and civil associations.

Political Engagement as Intrinsic Good

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Berger
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Social Marginalization ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intrinsic Good ◽  
Moral Engagement ◽  
Public Happiness ◽  
Political Realm

This chapter examines Hannah Arendt's views on the intrinsic value of political engagement as well as her attitude toward moral engagement. It begins with a discussion of Arendt's visionary political theory: her ideals of a free political realm, the politically engaged life, and the associated rewards of public freedom, public happiness, earthly immortality, and glory. It then considers Arendt's cautionary political theory: her warnings against the rampant materialism and deadly totalitarianism that threaten her ideals. It also explores Arendt's association of the social, marginalization, enslavement, and totalitarian domination with the concepts and metaphors of isolation, darkness, invisibility, bodily needs, and the eternal nothingness of oblivion. Finally, it points out some logical inconsistencies in Arendt's defense of political engagement as intrinsic good while acknowledging her many other insights on politics.

I Want Everybody to Have the Same Chance to Find Happiness

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-140
Author(s):  
Joel Thiessen ◽  
Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Many ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
As If

This chapter deals with political and civic engagement, once more comparing the actively religious, marginally religious, and unaffiliated. In terms of political engagement, the focus is on the many ways individuals are or are not politically active, including who they vote for. Discussion is similarly given to volunteering and charitable giving habits, such as if people volunteer or donate money (or not), how frequently and where they volunteer or give, and motivations for volunteering and giving. The chapter concludes with some possible social and civic implications on the horizon for those in the United States and Canada, should religious nones continue to hold a sizeable proportion of the population.

The Janus-Face of Digitalization: The Relation Between Internet Use and Civic Engagement Reconsidered

2019 ◽  
pp. 089443931986196
Author(s):  
Julian Erhardt ◽  
Markus Freitag
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Causal Relation ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Internet Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Robust Evidence

Research on the influence of digital technology on civic engagement debates whether Internet use leads to the decline of civic engagement or enables new social contacts and exchanges. We argue that whether Internet use has positive or negative effects on our civic engagement depends on how we use the Internet: Social Internet use and Internet use for information strengthen civic engagement, while private Internet use and Internet use for entertainment erode civic engagement. Data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social sciences (LISS) Panel and the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) allow us to employ differentiated measures of Internet use. In particular, their panel structure helps diminish the endogeneity problems of cross-sectional studies. By employing an autoregressive cross-lagged panel design, we are able to disentangle the relation between Internet use and associational participation and estimate the causal effect between the two variables in both directions. Analyzing associational participation as a pivotal pillar of the civil society, we show that social Internet use for information, in particular exchanging e-mails, but also being active on social network sites in the SHP, increases the likelihood of becoming or remaining active in an organization. At the same time, we fail to find consistent and robust evidence for the negative effects of Internet use. However, the causal relation also works the other way round: Associational participation was shown to increase the time respondents spend with writing e-mails, leading to a virtuous circle, whereby online and off-line forms of social engagement complement and enhance each other.

What about WhatsApp? A systematic review of WhatsApp and its role in civic and political engagement

First Monday ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Pang ◽  
Yue Ting Woo
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Social Media Platforms

The use of instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp for civic and political purposes has been observed and reported to be growing faster than other social media platforms especially in recent years. Using empirical research on WhatsApp studies published from 2009 to 2019 as its corpus of data, this article systematically reviews them to provide more robust conclusions about WhatsApp and its relationship with political and/or civic engagement. This paper seeks to answer three central questions related to WhatsApp and engagement: 1) What are the motivations in using WhatsApp and how do they manifest in the use of WhatsApp as a communication tool? 2) What is the role of WhatsApp in civic and political engagement? 3) How do researchers study the use of WhatsApp in civic and political engagement? The review finds that across empirical studies, while WhatsApp is used by activists and organisational networks for mobilisation and coordinating actions, it is also used by users who draw on the affordances of the medium for informal and ‘de-politicised’ conversations. The findings contribute to the theorising of social media-mediated movements and activism and highlight methodological gaps of ongoing research on WhatsApp.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document