Placing Latino Civic Engagement

Abstract

This study presents survey data assessing the civic and place engagement of Latino residents of three inner-ring Latino neighborhoods in Phoenix, Miami, and Chicago. We utilize a Latino/a Studies-inspired conceptual framework to assess the civic and place engagement of Latinos on its own terms, rather than as in-transition toward a mainstream or as a variation of Black American patterns of engagement. Although we find levels of sociability and trust to be uniformly high in our study neighborhoods, these social capital building blocks do not necessarily translate into civic and place engagement. Rather, we find civic and place engagement to be high in Pilsen, low in Little Havana, and mixed in Garfield. We conclude by suggesting that Latino/a civic and place engagement is predicated on the full cultural citizenship of Latinos; in addition, we suggest that Latino cultural citizenship is a notion that must become more attentive to place-based differences.