Civic Context Research Articles

Commoning Civics: Exchanges of Knowledge Beyond the ‘Civic University’

The revival of the ‘civic university’ agenda in the UK reopens questions concerning the framing, control and application of ‘knowledge’. While universities in the UK increasingly have to justify their work through benchmarking systems, questions persist over how ‘excellence’ and ‘exchange’ are understood, measured and valued in the context of pervasive capitalism. Such questions lead us to a concern over how knowledges (and knowledge-related resources) are exchanged, between whom and to what ends. In this article we consider the interface between knowledge exchange and political agendas that position higher education as servicing the reinvention of the UK as a ‘science superpower’, and the implications for development of the concept and practice of the civic university. We do so by reflecting on our own, and universities’, situatedness within civic contexts. We explore how ideas of commoning may help us frame civic ‘impact’ as a multi-directional process in which the university, as much as the city, is changed by encounters with new or differing constructions of knowledge, based on the ‘slow work’ of relationship building rather than top-down agendas.

Juxtaposing contested bodies: What can be learned from the politics of weightism and of women’s exclusion

ABSTRACT A significant stream in fat studies scholarship explores its relationship with other fields of critical theory that scrutinize the marginalization of stigmatized bodies. Engaging with sexism, racism, homophobia, and ableism, fat studies reflect on the concepts, critiques, and strategies employed to achieve equality and respect for all bodies. This essay contributes to this vein of scholarship by juxtaposing two seemingly remote topics: weightism in the United States and the global north and the treatment of the female body in the context of the tensions between religious accommodation and gender equality. Societies worldwide have increasingly faced tensions regarding religion and gender in civic contexts. These dilemmas are explored here through the case of religiously motivated sex-based segregation in the public sphere in Israel. Mapping the commonalities and intersections between these two arenas provides new insights into the politics of contested bodies and the path to change. The comparison reveals that in their respective contexts, fat bodies and women’s bodies are often framed as unruly and impure, bearing personal responsibility for their alleged plights. In both cases, the restraint of these bodies is deemed central to national unity and collective resilience, and their symbolic presence is to be erased or minimized. Additionally, the essay underscores the complexities of naming and politicizing the issues vis-à-vis de-politicization efforts. Finally, it addresses the challenge of balancing deontological and instrumentalist arguments in promoting justice and the oversimplified understanding of choice that governs the discourses in both arenas.

Analysis and Application of Civic Context Construction for University English Courses Combined with Cluster Analysis

Abstract This paper applies the cluster analysis method to classify different Civics contexts in university English courses, and improves the accuracy of Civics context text clustering by extracting the word stems of English Civics context texts. The text similarity calculation is used to remove feature words from the preprocessed text, to converge into a collection of feature words. The texts containing English Civic and Political Context are clustered and analyzed, and the clustering effect of Civic and Political Context texts is judged according to the clustering evaluation. The status quo of Civic and Political integration into English curriculum is explored from different dimensions, and corresponding optimization strategies are proposed with the converged data. The results show that the Civic-Political contexts of English courses are mainly divided into three categories, and based on the clustering of the Civic-Political contexts of university English courses, the contexts of “living, learning and doing” are relatively independent. The contexts “history, culture and society” and “science and technology” are closer. In integrating Civics and Politics into English teaching, the mean value of the dimension of teaching method is 4.212, which is in a better integration situation.

Family abuse targeting queer family members: An argument to address problems of visibility in local services and civic life

Abstract Purpose To draw attention to the invisibility of family abuse victimisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans folk and its impacts; and the lack of appropriate, confident, skilled, formal responses to family abuse victimisation. In addition to argue that local strategic commitment is required to address structural discrimination faced by queer folk and to positively invite those victimised to seek help from local services. Method A multi-method local study in a Central Bedfordshire, a County in England was conducted with an online survey, interviews and focus groups with local LGBT+ communities and practitioners. Results The data suggests worryingly high reporting of family abuse particularly for trans participants. At the same time our data, in line with others, shows help-seeking to be low other than to informal sources of help especially friends. In addition professionals appear underconfident about how to respond appropriately. Conclusions Family abuse targeting queer folk is a significant problem and under-recognised. This is in part due to the mainstream domestic abuse sector associating family abuse with racially minoritised and/or faith communities and particular forms of violence such as “honour” abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. Family abuse victimising queer folk is relatively invisible despite profound social, mental and physical health impacts. Practitioners in this study describe a lack of confidence, skills and knowledge about their practice responses to queer folk which needs to be addressed through training. However, we also conclude that the wider civic context can also play a part in sending messages to local queer folk that local services are for them and that there is a role for civic leaders to improve the visibility and confidence of local queer folk as citizens.

From The Anfield Wrap to Boss Night and the Paris Protests: Football, Politics, Identity and the Cultural Evolution of Fan Media and Supporter Activism in Liverpool

There have been significant recent developments in media produced by football fans, from social media and online magazines to podcasts, YouTube channels and live events. 21st century technologies have facilitated new types of supporter-produced media, rendering the means of production more accessible to fans. In Liverpool, fan channels have emerged, influenced by the city’s musical heritage and political and cultural identity. For instance, modern events such as Boss Night and podcasts produced by The Anfield Wrap (TAW) have helped provide an authentic voice for the city’s contemporary football culture, political identity and connected social activism. Due to globalised media networks, they can also offer an educational mobilising hub for those interested in Liverpool’s current idiosyncratic cultural and political civic context. This research is informed by literature on fan media and activism and draws on collective identity theory and Bourdieu’s notion of habitus. In-depth interviews were conducted with experienced supporters and various individuals closely associated with the production of fan media. Structurally, the paper outlines Liverpool’s historical, cultural, sporting and fan media context. It then analyses data detailing the evolution of Boss Mag to Boss Night events and examining The Anfield Wrap as an innovative site of content creation. Contextually, the paper explores fan activism through the mediatised protest of Liverpool’s ownership and collective expressions of political identity. Finally, it draws on the experiences of supporters at the 2022 Champions League final in Paris and the use of technology and fan media in capturing and responding to the mistreatment of supporters.

Citizen Forums: Examining a Journalistic Transparency Initiative’s Capacity to Foster Understanding, Connection, and Trust

ABSTRACT This exploratory research introduces and evaluates the effectiveness of a “citizen forum” transparency initiative. Survey research shows that most U.S. citizens have a weak sense of connection to news organizations. Many U.S. Americans question the news media’s trustworthiness, believe that their news media sources undervalue their audience, and feel that news media do a poor job of explaining story production. Designed to address such disconnects, this research initiative involved conducting two day-long events in two different U.S. Midwestern towns. Inspired by “citizen academies” facilitated in other local civic contexts, the initiative featured in-person panels and forum discussions with journalists and journalism educators. Panel participants talked about journalism-related issues and engaged with audience-posed questions/comments. Employing survey questionnaires and focus group interviews, this study’s mixed-method research agenda was structured to examine the extent to which such citizen forum programming can serve to promote understanding of journalism, facilitate a sense of connection with local journalism, and bolster/sustain news trust more generally. Ultimately, this multi-pronged case study offers evidence of positive outcomes relative to citizen forums promoting “engaged journalism,” though not without caveats and challenges.

New light on the use of Theobroma cacao by Late Classic Maya

Cacao seeds, Theobroma cacao, provide the basis for a ceremonially important Mesoamerican food. Past efforts to identify cacao in ceramics focused on highly decorative vessel forms associated with elite ceremonial contexts, creating assumptions as to how cacao was distributed and who could access it. This study examines 54 archaeological ceramic sherds from El Pilar (Belize/Guatemala) of Late Classic (600 to 900 CE) residential and civic contexts representing a cross-section of ancient Maya inhabitants. Identification of cacao in ancient sherds has depended on the general presence of theobromine; we used the discrete presence of theophylline, a unique key biomarker for cacao in the region. Analysis was done by grinding off all outside surfaces to reduce contamination, pulverizing the inner clay matrix, extracting absorbed molecules, and concentrating the extractions. In order to obtain especially high selectivity and low limits of detection, our study utilized the technique of resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization coupled with laser-desorption jet-cooling mass spectrometry. This technique isolates molecules in the cold gas phase where they can be selectively ionized through a resonant two-photon process. Of the sherds analyzed, 30 samples (56%) were found to contain significant amounts of theophylline and thus test positive for cacao. Importantly, cacao is present in all contexts, common to all Maya residents near and far from centers.

Emotions in the mediated civic context of the family: Understanding children's and parents' mutually constitutive mediation environment

AbstractThis article proposes that more attention should be paid to how mediated civic engagements are shaped in a family context. Through an interpretive literature review of research that studies the family's role in mediating civic engagement, we identify several problematic conceptual understandings that create rigid distinctions between the family sphere and its members' civic engagement, as well as between their analogue and digital engagements. The article introduces a conceptual framework that has implications for further research on mediated civic engagement by taking into consideration parents', children and youth's emotions and affective relations as relevant for engaging in the civic realm.

Understanding scientific literacy through personal and civic engagement: A citizen science case study

ABSTRACT Citizen science programs, which engage volunteers in varied aspeicts of scientific research projects, have been widely touted as a promising avenue for enhancing public scientific literacy and scientific civic engagement. The meanings volunteers make of citizen science experiences can influence the ways that scientific information is translated into action. This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding scientific literacy in terms of personal and civic engagement with science. The framework is explored through a case study of citizen scientists’ reflections on their experiences in an ecologically focused citizen science program. Findings describe ways that participants drew on their citizen science experiences to use and produce science in and for personal and civic contexts. Implications for enhancing connections between citizen science and personal and civic engagement are discussed.

On Shaky Ground

On Shaky Ground

A Compass During the Storm: Offering Students Critical Rigor for Polarizing Times

ABSTRACTTeaching and learning in higher education is occurring, unavoidably, within the broader civic context of today’s extraordinarily polarizing political times. We seek to help students situate themselves with respect to and, above all, thoughtfully assess others’ as well as their own perspectives on issues of profound contention, without contributing to exacerbated polarization ourselves. Specifically, we offer students in our first-year exploratory political science course a vital tool—critical rigor—for navigating but not being inundated by the storm. This article discusses our experiences in teaching the course titled, “The Worlds of Politics,” as we attempt to help students deeply engage in cognitive processes of critical thinking and analysis, without undue infringement from their own—and least of all our own—personal political biases. Our focal learning objective is the cultivation of critical-thinking skills that promote students’ drawing of distinctions between advocacy and analysis, as well as their discerning civic engagement.

Local context and immigrant bureaucratic incorporation: insights from Amsterdam and New York City

ABSTRACT This article explains how bureaucratic inertia and resistance to accommodating immigrants were overcome in Amsterdam and New York City. Scholarship on ‘immigrant bureaucratic incorporation’ is based largely on research conducted in U.S. suburban and rural areas and tends to highlight the importance of bureaucrats’ professional ethos – at times amplified by inclusive state and federal policies. Building on this work, our examination of Amsterdam school policies and New York City language access policies underscores instead the importance of local political and civic context in explaining why and how bureaucracies responded to the needs of immigrant communities in these established gateway cities. While Amsterdam and New York City bureaucrats initially resisted accommodating immigrants’ needs largely due to big-government inertia, their interactions, synergies, and conflicts with other local governmental and nongovernmental actors active on immigrant issues eventually resulted in more inclusive school and language access policies and practices.

Civic dimensions of critical digital literacies: towards an abolitionist lens

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the role of digital and civic literacies in the context of resurgent right-wing ethno-nationalism and movements for the abolition of oppressive institutions worldwide. We discuss how, while digital tools have opened up lines of democratized communication and action, civic life online and offline has become both more authoritarian and more polarized. As software platforms like Facebook and Twitter now dominate everyday civic and economic life, media and civic literacy frameworks fail to address this new reality. After overviewing a framework for literacies in current digital and civic contexts, we draw on critical race science and technology studies in order to contest notions of a universal digital or civic subject, and to argue for moving beyond normative progress discourses. Instead, we offer an abolitionist imagination, arguing that classroom approaches to critical digital literacies must draw on abolitionist praxis in order to challenge ways interlocking forms of oppression affect contemporary civic life, both online and offline.

PHILOSOPHERS AND CITIZENS ON THE AREOPAGUS: LUCIAN'S PROSE TRILOGY

The lively discussion of the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy, the presentation of a theory of writing dialogues that combine elements from different genres and a dramatic frame that presents this theory in an Athenian setting as philosophical schools such as the Stoa and the Academy explain to the citizens their contributions to civic virtue make theTwice Accusednot only one of the most important dialogues for understanding Lucian's project but also one of the most important literary treatments of the reception of philosophy in Athens and the status of philosophy in the Imperial period. Because many of the philosophical elements Lucian uses to create his drama—common arguments, well-known attitudes and standard portraits—are conventional, the creativity and originality of the work consists in the combination of these elements and juxtaposition of different scenes and frames; understanding each scene and its significance depends on establishing its relationship to other scenes. This paper will examine the role theTwice Accusedplays as part of a trilogy of dialogues together with theSale of Livesand theFisherman; the trilogy presents a reflection on the introduction of philosophy and a progressive analysis of the attitudes between citizens and philosophers in the Athenian civic context. Considering the three as a trilogy not only reveals a central tragic intertext but also illuminates the way that the methodological statement at the end of theTwice Accusedcompletes the schema connecting attitudes towards the philosophical tradition to Athenian topography by moderating the extremes of the previous two dialogues and explaining the role of philosophical writing as a mediating force between the demands of philosophy and the needs of the larger civic community.

The role of family civic context in character development across childhood and adolescence

Parents promote character development in many ways: by cultivating a supportive relationship, modeling the strengths they hope to cultivate, and through the ideas they communicate to their children. Given the need for developmentally sensitive assessments of contexts that facilitate character development, this study examined the role of a family civic context by examining associations between psychological needs support, parental modeling, and communication and character across elementary-, middle-, and high school ages. Using a diverse, cross-sectional sample of 2,467 youth ages 9–19, bifactor models were estimated across age groups to examine age differences in associations between parenting practices and character. Psychological needs support and communication predicted global character across age groups. At older ages, parenting practices evidenced greater specificity in promoting character strengths. Results provide insights into the distinct ways parenting strategies are associated with the development of general and specific character strengths and how these associations vary with age.

“Signifying Nothing”: Identifying Conceptions of Youth Civic Identity in the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards and the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ Reading Framework

Author(s): Garcia, Antero; Mirra, Nicole | Abstract: This manuscript examines how national reading policies in the United States shape specific kinds of civic identities for K–12 students. We engage in a thematic discourse analysis of two contemporary national policy documents—the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Framework—to understand the ways citizenship is defined and constructed at the national level. By reading these documents for how they conceptualize civic-based educational outcomes, we interrogate the disconnects between this language and the civic contexts—and potential outlets for civic action—that young people are navigating in the United States today. We examine how seemingly benign policy documents define citizenship in increasingly narrow visions of individualist passivity, and how such definitions run counter to the expansive visions necessary to honor the lived experiences of young citizens of color. Our analysis highlights how these policy documents structure literacy practices, including the variety of texts that students encounter, opportunities to analyze those texts, and specific forms of engagement with media and messages found in society, in ways that stymie a Freirian reading of the word and the world. Ultimately, we suggest how educators might work within the limited pedagogical spaces of these policies toward liberatory ends.

Local context and labour-community immigrant rights coalitions: a comparison of San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston

ABSTRACTThe historic immigrant mobilisations of 2006 have reinvigorated public debates about immigration in the United States and the role of the labour movement in advancing immigrant rights. Prior research has highlighted why the U.S. labour movement officially declared solidarity with immigrant workers in 2000, but how has this new commitment played out on the ground? Drawing on rich qualitative data on immigrant-focused coalition building in San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston since the early 2000s, we show that local labour unions in all three cities have collaborated with a range of organisations to improve immigrant and worker rights. Rather than one coherent strategy, however, we find variation in the form, depth, and function of these partnerships across cities. This suggests that differences in local context pose distinct opportunities and challenges for immigrant-focused labour-community immigrant rights coalitions, and our analysis focuses on differences in demographic, political, and civic context across place. We argue that beyond an analysis of the U.S. labour movement, a multi-sectoral and comparative local approach is important to gain a fuller understanding of unions’ engagement with immigrant rights.

The Rhetoric of American Exceptionalism in the Interfaith Movement in the United States

Two aspects of the rhetoric of American exceptionalism have informed the interfaith movement in the United States for more than a century: (1) America is an exceptional society with an exceptional religious system, and (2) America has a global mission. This article traces the rhetoric of American exceptionalism in four interfaith cases: the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, and the Tri-Faith Initiative of Omaha, Nebraska. Two supportable claims can be made: The modern interfaith movement originated in the exceptional social and civic context of the U.S. and subsequently emerged in comparable social and civic contexts.

Mastering the Landscape: Geometric Survey in Sixteenth-Century France

By the mid-sixteenth century in Europe, architectural drawing conventions consisting of scaled, orthogonal plans were in general use. One area of drawing practice, however, proved resistant to the application of scale. In France, the use of scaled topographical maps was well established for military purposes by the second half of the sixteenth century, but they did not break through in most civic contexts until the 1640s. The lagging and uneven adoption of the technique points to a stratification of expertise among both mapmakers and map audiences. The first instances of survey for urban and landscape design also appear relatively late.

Rethinking Digital Media and Citizenship: Conditions, Contexts, and Consequences

This special issue presents a total of seven articles concerning digital media and citizenship in various political, civic, and cultural contexts. Specifically, the entire collection investigates how digital media use and civic engagement can be conceptualized, operationalized, and theorized in the current digital media environment. The seven studies further examine how the use of traditional and newer forms of media influences civic engagement across communities of places, interests, and practices as well as different social groups at the local and global levels. With an interest in social conditions and contexts surrounding the civic utility of digital media, this special issue brings a unique perspective to the existing scholarship and provides new venues for continued scholarly attention to this important subject.