Industrial Pollution, Social Trust, and Civic Engagement: A Nationwide Study of the Socioenvironmental Nature of Social Capital

I conduct a nationwide investigation of the relationship that toxic industrial pollution and the facilities that produce it have with trust and civic engagement within communities. Data on pollution exposure come from the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Geographic Microdata (RSEI-GM) and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data sets for the years 1995 to 1999. Data on trust and civic engagement come from the 2000 restricted-access Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS). Statistical analyses provide strong support for Freudenburg and Jones’ conceptualization of corrosive communities and indicate that exposures to more toxic air pollution associate negatively with various measures of trust, and that increased numbers of TRI facilities associate negatively with various measures of civic engagement. The implication is that exposure to toxic industrial air pollution and the facilities that produce it not only adversely affect the physical health of nearby communities, but also their social well-being and underlying capacities for collective action.

L’arte contemporanea e il “civic engagement”

This essay explores the value of the artist’s action and the power that his work exercises in the socio-political history of his country. It talks about Picasso and his Guernica, offering a reading of the work following the thread of Antonio Banfi’s aesthetics through the critical look of Dino Formaggio. The scene opens with the parisian Expo of 1937. The article is then integrated with aesthetic, moral and civil contents that guide the reader to understand the concept of morality, crisis and life of the art for Banfi and the connection with Picasso's cultural work, starting from his writings against Franco’s atrocities up to Guernica. An authentic reading of the work is inserted that wants to support the moral shock determined by Guernica: a real denunciation of the misery and corruption of the government, inciting the people to fight. Finally, in order to show how current the artists’ interest in social, political and international problems is, the essay ends by presenting the work of two particularly committed contemporary artists: the Italian Paola Ravasio and the Syrian Tammam Azzam.

Civic Engagement Scholarship: What We Can Learn from the Research

We have selected articles to review from PS: Political Science & Politics that in some way inform civic education designed to promote civic knowledge, skills, and engagement. Our analysis provides a basic overview of these articles so that practitioners and scholars can quickly and easily reference the research and practices reflected in these articles and use these when designing their own course curriculum and assignments. A good many of these papers provide best practices or detailed descriptions of initiatives for easy replicability. This literature review has the modest intent to survey the works described herein in order to identify useful, actionable and broadly relevant research and practices that can easily be deployed to address the crises we currently face.

Fostering Civic Engagement in Smart Cities

Smart cities are modern concepts that aim to provide better living conditions to their citizens by creating a sustainable environment. Citizens are the key partners behind the development of a smart city. They have to be aware about the civic duties and responsibilities towards the community. In this chapter, the authors analyze the concept of smart cities and what are the issues and challenges in India for developing a smart city. The authors also examine various civic engagement initiatives by the government of India. The objective of this chapter is to find the role played by public libraries in creating smarter communities and how they will help in promoting civic engagement activities.

Participatory Literacy and Taking Informed Action in the Social Studies

The purpose of the social studies is to prepare students for life as citizens in a democratic society, and this requires attention to the variety of digital spaces inhabited by our K-12 students in today's increasingly digitized world. Incorporating participatory technologies into structured inquiries in the social studies may help develop students' skills and abilities in critically sourcing, evaluating, sharing, and creating media, and provides the opportunity for increasingly democratic participation and civic engagement both in and out of the school setting. In this chapter, the authors suggest the integration of participatory literacy with the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) framework as a means of supporting students in taking informed action.

How LAM Sector Can Improve Quality of Life for Underserved Groups via a Whole Person Approach

A Whole Person Approach (WPA) can be used in various parts of LAM (Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector to provide effective services for underserved groups of society to achieve civic engagement with the communities it serves. WPA is a relatively new theoretical framework in the fields of social science and healthcare. It highlights the necessity and importance of having a holistic view in dealing with different life matters and challenges. This chapter focuses on the special services that LAM sector can offer to facilitate the way towards achieving the goal of enhanced civic engagement, as serving the unserved groups of society is an urgent priority for the sector. Several Creative strategies will be discussed that can be implemented in the current services to make sure the special needs of communities that a sector serves are considered and met. A limitation of this chapter is that it is not a case study, nor is it based on field experiences. It is in fact a critical exploration of the concepts to facilitate in building a theory in an interdisciplinary perspective.