Civic Innovation in America: Community Empowerment, Public Policy, and the Movement for Civic RenewalUniversity of California Press, 2001 M07 1 - 385 pages In this book, two leading experts on community action provide the first scholarly examination of the civic renewal movement that has emerged in the United States in recent decades. Sirianni Friedland examine civic innovation since the 1960s as social learning in four arenas (community organizing/development, civic environmentalism, community health, and public journalism), and they link local efforts to broader networks and to the development of "public policy for democracy." They also explore the emergence of a movement for civic renewal that builds upon the civic movements in these four arenas. In contrast to some recent studies that stress broad indicators of civic decline, this study analyzes innovation as a long process of social learning within specific institutional and policy domains with complex challenges and cross-currents. It draws upon analytical frameworks of social capital, policy learning, organizational learning, regulatory culture, democratic theory, and social movement theory. The study is based upon interviews with more than 400 innovative practitioners, as well as extensive field observation, case study, action research, and historical analysis. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Community Organizing and Development | 35 |
Civic Environmentalism | 85 |
Community Health and Civic Organizing | 138 |
Public Journalism | 186 |
The Civic Renewal Movement | 234 |
NOTES | 281 |
INDEX | 349 |
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Civic Innovation in America: Community Empowerment, Public Policy, and the ... Carmen Sirianni,Lewis Friedland No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
activists African American agencies All-America City Awards American arenas Boyte broader capacities CDCs challenges Charlotte citizen participation Citizenship Citizenship Project civic environmentalism civic innovation civic journalism civic renewal movement coalitions collaborative Community Action community development community health community organizing community-based core Council critical decades deliberation democracy democratic director emerged engaged environmental justice federal forms Foundation funding grassroots groups health centers Health Decisions healthy communities helped initiative institutions issues journalists Kettering Kettering Foundation leaders leadership learning meetings ment mobilize munity National Civic League neighborhood associations networks Office Oregon organizational participatory participatory democracy partners partnerships Personal interview political practices problem solving professional programs projects public journalism reform Report response role schools Sierra Club social capital strategies Superfund sustainable teams Theda Skocpol tion University Press Urban vision Washington watershed Wisconsin Public Television York
Popular passages
Page 273 - I know of no safe repository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.
Page 37 - which is developed, conducted, and administered with the maximum feasible participation of residents of the areas and members of the groups served.
Page 24 - are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within people's reach. they teach men how to use and how to enjoy
Page 37 - objective of every community action program is to effect a permanent increase in the capacity of individuals, groups, and communities afflicted by poverty to deal effectively with their own problems so that they need no further assistance.
Page 147 - broadly representative of the social, economic, linguistic, and racial populations, geographic areas of the health service area, and major purchasers of health care.”
Page 20 - numerous studies have shown that ambitious programs which appeared after a few years to be abject failures received more favorable evaluations when seen in a longer time frame; conversely, initial success may evaporate over time.
Page 286 - Carole Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory (Cambridge. England: Cambridge University Press, 1970); Benjamin Barber, Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1984).
Page 13 - Social capital refers to those stocks of social trust, norms, and networks that people can draw upon to solve common problems. Networks of civic engagement, such as neighborhood associations,
Page 13 - They embody past success at collaboration, which can serve as a cultural template for future collaboration on other kinds of problems.
Page 21 - is virtually impossible, opponents are doing everything possible to muddle the situation and otherwise to impede one from learning, and even allies' motives are often suspect because of personal and organizational rivalries.