Civic Imagination Research Articles

Critical Theory and the Global Civic Imagination: Ethics and the Reconstitution of Citizenship in Decolonial Thought

Abstract: In this essay, I show how critical projects of decoloniality might help build a new humanity. I focus on the intellectual output of Chielozona Eze, arguing that, as public-service scholarship, it bears witness to the shifts occurring in contemporary decolonial thought and thus exemplifies the role the humanities can play to midwife an inclusive and empathetic global democratic culture so central to decolonial studies. My analysis aims to demonstrate how the humanities can be a tool in meeting civic needs and interests and thereby help rehabilitate modern society.

The path from participatory culture to participatory politics: A critical investigation—An interview with Henry Jenkins

In this interview, Henry Jenkins critically reviews his theorization of the logical and practical connection between participatory culture and participatory politics, which is enabled and facilitated by the civic imagination of various social groups strategically and affectively deploying popular culture resources for different political purposes. Henry Jenkins emphatically discusses the democratic potential of participatory culture in autocratic societies and the mechanisms to promote the progressiveness of participatory politics, and carefully yet enthusiastically defends the significance of fandom’s affective and appropriative practices for bridging participatory culture and participatory politics. In the end of this interview, Henry Jenkins also reflects on the genealogical relations of his thinking on participatory democracy with John Fiske’s political understanding of popular culture and evaluates his own theoretical contributions to the political philosophy of participatory democracy.

Reaping the Harvest of Joy: Practitioner Enquiry into Intercultural Group Singing

Singers from community choirs in the UK and Norway participated in research to evaluate their experiences of singing in a collaborative choral event in the UK in June 2023. They shared personal stories of their participation and interpreted the significance of their experiences through the app-based data collection method Sensemaker®. We found strong evidence of fast social bonding through a shared emotional experience, which was amplified by the aesthetic qualities of the singing, the material qualities of the venue and the ethical qualities of leadership to model and express the values and attitudes underpinning the reported positive effects. As an intercultural activity, we found that both bonding and bridging social capital were produced through the activity, highlighting the potential of group singing as a potent form of civic imagination and for developing intercultural empathy. The study also highlights the value of practitioner enquiry as a research methodology for developing an understanding of the complex ways in which participation in cultural activities can lead to positive outcomes for participants.

The homing of newcomers in Brussels at the intersection of bordering and urban speculation: From survival strategies to infrastructures for civic imagination and urban inclusion

Informed by a year of participatory action research in Globe Aroma, an organisation supporting artists and art lovers with a background as newcomers in Brussels, this paper examines how newcomers negotiate their homing at the intersection of bordering and securitisation on the one side, and gentrification and urban speculation on the other. We argue that these exclusionary structures of power do not only challenge newcomers’ homing by restricting access to housing, but also by creating precarious conditions for supportive organisations, which are often housed in low-quality, temporary infrastructures. Our research explores how housing and socio-cultural organisations in Brussels begin to utilise coalition-building and space-sharing as survival strategies, that gradually transform into a common claim for permanent infrastructures and become tools for building solidarity and homing the city. In doing so, they foster an alternative vision of urban citizenship, grounded in community-building and decent housing and services for all.

Civic Imagination and Cosmopolitanism

Civic Imagination and Cosmopolitanism

Laughing Off Hollywood’s Representation Practices: the Joker’s Cultural Politics

Hollywood’s popular hero films are infused with hegemonic representations and narratives that can potentially shape or maintain certain beliefs and attitudes. Superheroes especially have become ubiquitous and a fuel for the civic imagination. Such is the case of the Joker, a comic book anarchic supervillain, a criminal mastermind who antagonizes Batman, and a mythic palimpsest that evolves and adapts to the socio-political zeitgeist. The present research aims to qualitatively explore the Joker’s cultural politics and investigates two of the highest-grossing Joker films, “Joker” (2019) and “The Dark Knight” (2008), through semiotic and discursive analyses of their politics of representation and signifying practices, the purpose of which is to shine a light on the “Joker” symbol as represented in film. The results indicate that the Joker’s cultural politics is pervaded by markers of gender violence, sexism, ableism, and racism, thus embodying Hollywood’s mass-distributed discourses which are heavily informed by the same hegemonic masculinity, as well as race, gender, and disability stereotypes.

Divergent Fan Forums and Political Consciousness Raising

This article conducts a thematic analysis of 40 threads related to sociopolitical issues on two <em>Divergent</em> fan forums, one on Divergent Fans and another on Divergent Wiki, to determine whether these forums raise political consciousness, especially among young people. As scholars of civic imagination show, popular culture narratives may lead to the ability to imagine a better future. Utopian narratives in particular facilitate this process in a dialectical way by presenting us with an impossible world, and dystopian narratives may operate in a similarly dialectical fashion by offering a negative example or warning. Analysis of posts related to utopia and dystopia, the story world versus the real world, historical and contemporary parallels, governmental reform, and non-normative sexuality reveals that participants on <em>Divergent </em>fan forums discuss real-world issues and sometimes imagine a better world, but this does not conclusively raise political consciousness. We can account for these civic successes and failures by considering Dahlgren’s (2009) six elements of civic cultures: knowledge, values, trust, spaces, practices/skills, and identities. While fan knowledge, trust, and spaces are strong, and fan identities can be experienced as relatively static, values and practices/skills are important areas for intervention to cultivate political consciousness among young people. Critical civic education at the secondary school level could foster democratic values, and teaching media literacy and political discussion skills could improve students’ ability to think critically about entertainment narratives.

Flying cars and bigots: projecting post-COVID-19 worlds through the atlas of the civic imagination as refuge for hope

ABSTRACT In April 2020, the Civic Imagination Project at the University of Southern California, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, asked participants around the world to share some of their reflections on what the world of 2060 might look like, and what roles the COVID-19 pandemic may have played in transforming how we live and relate to each other. For the past six years, the Civic Imagination Project has been conducting world-building workshops with groups across America and around the world. Our workshops encourage participants to imagine together what the future might look like under the premise that before we can change the world, we have to be able to collectively imagine what a better world looks like. For this paper, our team draws tools from speculative fiction to create a process where communities come together and propose what an alternative world might look like. While it is still too early for any preliminary analysis, we anticipate being able to map responses from many different parts of the world, and in particular, across different regions in the United States. We are interested in the tensions amongst utopian, dystopian, protopian and heterotopian visions at a time of enormous anxiety.

Review: Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California, by Adam Arenson

Book Review| November 01 2021 Review: Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California, by Adam Arenson Adam Arenson. Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018. 368 pp. Hardcover $45.00. Sarah Schrank Sarah Schrank Sarah Schrank is professor of history at California State University, Long Beach. She earned her PhD from the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of Art and the City: Civic Imagination and Cultural Authority in Los Angeles (2009) and Free and Natural: Nudity and the American Cult of the Body (2019). She is currently working on a book manuscript on the gendered history of wellness in the United States. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar California History (2021) 98 (4): 135–137. https://doi.org/10.1525/ch.2021.98.4.135 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Sarah Schrank; Review: Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California, by Adam Arenson. California History 1 November 2021; 98 (4): 135–137. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ch.2021.98.4.135 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentCalifornia History Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2021 by The Regents of the University of California2021 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Missing an Opportunity? The Limited Civic Imagination of Votes at 16

Abstract The debate over reform to the voting age at Westminster elections is dominated by a concept of young people as deficient and disengaged citizens. In the contemporary context of young civic action, new approaches to the civic can support a regeneration of the vote in young people’s expanded political toolbox. A conceptual approach to the debate on voting reform is presented alongside a critical appraisal of the opportunities available, to all sides of the debate, to contribute to young political regeneration.

Consumer movements, brand activism, and the participatory politics of media: A conversation

This is a scripted adaptation of a conversational podcast interview between Henry Jenkins and Robert Kozinets about contemporary consumer activism and its relationship to media studies. After the interview, the conversants agreed to develop the transcript of the conversation in order to be more relevant to a scholarly audience who are interested in how Jenkins’ ideas apply to the understanding and investigation of consumer culture today. The conversation frames and synthesizes a range of thinking around activism, fan studies, brand management, and consumer culture theory. Couched in the American context but containing themes that may also relate to global culture in the current moment, it covers the theoretical as well as the pragmatic concerns of many of the stakeholders in the world of contemporary consumer activism, from the activists themselves to the brand managers who respond to their actions to the creators who write the stories that inspire them both. Topics include the relevance of participatory culture today, anti-racism and the role of media, consumer conflicts with brands and the corporations who police them, the importance of civic imagination to civic engagement, differences between brand managers and story creators, consumer activism in the workplace, activist and participatory approaches to civic research, the nature of contemporary consumer activist movements, the impact of intersectionality, and the prefigurative possibilities for change today.

Addressing Perceptions of Bias in the Ivory Tower

Abstract Colleges and universities in the United States have always been at the forefront of political dialogue in society. In times of political and cultural upheaval in the country, they are institutions that come under fire for being politically biased toward liberal ideology. Despite the best efforts of university leaders to dismiss these claims, such perceptions are real, having resulted in growing distrust in the academy. Recognizing the gravity of this issue for higher education and the nation, this article calls for colleges to prioritize pedagogical practices that build skills in intellectual humility and ideological empathy among students. In emphasizing these cognitive skills and habits, university leaders can help students develop the capacity for civic imagination and productive engagement to address complex problems. Widespread adoption of such practices could help institutions regain public trust as places where political openness and the free exchange of ideas can flourish.

Imagining democratic societies of the future: Insights from a foresight study

AbstractThis paper explores the future government models and emerging societal challenges in the relationship between citizens and governments. By assessing various factors and their convergence, among which the uptake of participatory governance on the one hand, and the governance of digital technologies and media on the other, four scenarios have been created: DIY Democracy, Private Algocracy, Super Collaborative Government, and Over Regulatocracy. These scenarios, emerged from participatory workshops and based on civic imagination, are used as tools for reflection. They were further employed in conversations with stakeholders to explore new possibilities and challenge preconceived ideas about governments today, as well as assess the redistribution of power relations between societal actors and political institutions as we move toward 2030. The paper concludes by discussing the benefits of civic imagination for thinking about the futures of our democratic societies and the need for broader perspectives and a combination of theoretical and methodological approaches for setting the future policy and research agendas.

SCIENCE FICTION AND METHODOLOGY

SCIENCE FICTION AND METHODOLOGY

As culturas das crianças e dos jovens encontram os desafios da participação – entrevista com Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins, professor provost de Comunicação, Jornalismo, Artes Cinematográficas
 e Educação na Universidade do Sul da Califórnia, está no centro de algumas
 das mais relevantes discussões mantidas nos campos da comunicação e dos media ao
 longo dos últimos 30 anos. Textual poachers (Jenkins, 1992/2013) marcou uma viragem
 decisiva nos estudos sobre a fandom, realçando que os fãs e as suas culturas (participativas)
 podiam e deviam ser olhados para além dos preconceitos maioritariamente
 vigentes até então. No início deste século, enquanto as discussões sobre o conceito de
 convergência estavam centradas em fatalidades tecnológicas e em imperativos económicos,
 Henry Jenkins enfatizou a necessidade de se prestar atenção às suas dimensões
 culturais (nomeadamente àquelas derivadas ou inspiradas pela crescente visibilidade e
 força de culturas participativas), com os seus esforços a culminarem na publicação de
 um outro livro, Convergence culture (Jenkins, 2008). Não surpreendentemente, a participação
 mantém-se como um conceito relevante nas pesquisas atuais de Henry Jenkins.
 Nesta entrevista, algumas das ideias de trabalhos anteriores são revisitadas e outras de
 investigações mais recentes (tal como a de imaginação cívica) são discutidas. Simultaneamente,
 são também debatidos os dilemas teóricos e metodológicos, do presente e
 do futuro, que qualquer pessoa que procure compreender a participação enfrenta, bem
 como lacunas na investigação existente. As especificidades das culturas das crianças e
 dos jovens quando encontram os desafios da participação guiaram esta conversa.

A Study on Ecological Literature Education Designed to Foster civic imagination

A Study on Ecological Literature Education Designed to Foster civic imagination

Addressing Perceptions of Bias in the Ivory Tower

Abstract Colleges and universities in the United States have always been at the forefront of political dialogue in society. In times of political and cultural upheaval in the country, they are institutions that come under fire for being politically biased toward liberal ideology. Despite the best efforts of university leaders to dismiss these claims, such perceptions are real, having resulted in growing distrust in the academy. Recognizing the gravity of this issue for higher education and the nation, this article calls for colleges to prioritize pedagogical practices that build skills in intellectual humility and ideological empathy among students. In emphasizing these cognitive skills and habits, university leaders can help students develop the capacity for civic imagination and productive engagement to address complex problems. Widespread adoption of such practices could help institutions regain public trust as places where political openness and the free exchange of ideas can flourish.

Marvel, Star Wars and the Risk of Being a Hero: Social Responsibilities for Transmedia Storytellers in the Age of Collective Journey

Abstract In 2018, James Gunn and Chuck Wendig both lost lucrative jobs as storytellers for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and Star Wars, respectively, as a result of their aggressively political social media communications. This paper argues that these events can be understood in part by Gunn and Wendig’s social media profiles being blurred with their role as custodians for their respective franchises, and their interactions being out of sync with the aspirational themes associated with the MCU and Star Wars storyworlds. Compounding this issue is the significant structural evolution that modern, popular and commercial stories are undergoing, towards a collective journey model. Collective journey stories are an evolved version of traditional hero’s journey tales, and showcase the importance of listening and negotiating to drive systemic, collective action. Such stories have increased capacity to improve the civic imagination and provide symbols that individuals can draw from to manifest meaningful change. The appearance of these stories in popular commercial entertainment is a reflection of our increasingly digital lives and heightened connectivity, as well as a by-product of our increasing tendency to transmedially tell stories. The professional troubles Gunn and Wendig encountered are a result of them contrasting this storytelling modality, and can be understood in the context of a semiotic cultural shift, as we collectively come to better understand the impact of the Internet and our participatory digital culture.

New Civic Paths and a Public Sphere of the Imagination: The Civic Imagination Project

Depuis 10 ans, notre équipe de recherche Civic Paths à l’Université Southern California a cherché à favoriser l’engagement civique à travers les discours de la culture populaire. Dans cet article, nous détaillons la théorie et la méthodologie permettant de comprendre ce que nous appelons l’imagination civique, que nous définissons de cette manière : « la capacité d’imaginer des alternatives au conditions économiques, culturelles, sociales et politiques actuelles » (Jenkins, Peters-Lazaro, & Shresthova, 2020). A travers des lectures critiques et des pratiques de créations d’univers collaboratives, nous avons travaillé avec des groupes allant de membres de l’Eglise, à des membres d’université pour construire des visions articulées et solidaires de la justice sociale. Ici, nous partageons nos bonnes pratiques avec vous.

Victorian Soul-Talk: Poetry, Democracy, and the Body Politic. Julia F. Saville. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. xii+307.

<i>Victorian Soul-Talk: Poetry, Democracy, and the Body Politic</i>. Julia F. Saville. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. xii+307.