Civic Motivation Research Articles

Do monetary or nonmonetary incentives promote citizens' use of a government crowdsourcing: A case of the City of Omaha's 311‐type of crowdsourcing platform

AbstractIncreasing numbers of local governments have adopted crowdsourcing platforms to engage citizens in public service provisions. As citizen engagement plays a critical role in the success of government crowdsourcing, we focus on incentive strategies to facilitate it. While studies have considered monetary incentives the primary motivator traditionally, recent research has examined the potency of nonmonetary strategies that stimulate citizens' territorial or civic motivation. Linking the coproduction framework of incentives to expectancy theories as a theoretical framework, we compare the effects of those incentives with vignette experiments that include Omahahotline—a 311‐type of government crowdsourcing platform run by the City of Omaha. The results show that not just a material incentive but also a solidary incentive increases residents' willingness to participate in the platform effectively. By conducting experiments with Omaha residents, we offer implications for local governments to use effective incentive strategies to engage citizens in the government crowdsourcing platform.

Critical Civic Motivation of Marginalized Youth: An Expectancy-Value Approach

The present study advances a model of critical civic motivation grounded in expectancy-value theory and highlights diverse manifestations of motivation among marginalized adolescents. The participants were 447 high school youth (85.0% Latinx; 62.9% low-income). Two complementary methodological approaches were employed to examine civic motivation, conceptualized as expectancies (individual and collective), and values (interest and attainment). First, regression analyses found that civic expectancies and values differentially predicted behavioral outcomes of service and activism. Expectancies and values interactively predicted activism, whereas only main effects of individual and collective efficacy and interest value positively predicted service. Second, person-centered analyses yielded a five-cluster solution, with one-third of the participants exhibiting discrepancies between expectancies and values. Distinct patterns in the manifestations of civic motivation components may inform practices that support civic engagement of marginalized youth. Overall, the findings illustrate the utility of a holistic, critical framework that integrates established literatures on political efficacy and interest.

Civic stage fright: Motivation and news satire engagement

This article explores news satire engagement and civic motivation, an area of concern in satire scholarship. Focused on what audiences ‘do’ with media, the ways in which young adults who regularly engage in news satire construct political efficacy is studied. Using a qualitative contextualising audience study, including in-depth interviews and focus groups with 31 young adults, a thematic analysis of transcript data identifies three discursive themes relating to civic anxieties; development and invitation, performance and knowledge, and conflict and ‘packaged deals’. These emphasise news satire as cultural form as well as shifting civic ideals and development processes: exposing how news satire’s ‘kynicism’ (non-nihilist criticism) connects to civic performance anxiety. The identified anxieties are understood as related to fears of exclusion, embarrassment and misrepresentation. The metaphor of civic stage fright is developed to further understand these, underscoring the role of emotion and social interaction in civic performance.

Civic Learning and Self-Determination: A Model of User-Generated Content and Civic Readiness Among Actualizing Citizens

AbstractParticipation in user-generated content (UGC) consistently relates to participation in various forms of online and offline politics, suggesting that it is likely to complement or even serve as a gateway to instrumental engagement. Yet, there has been little attempt to offer a comprehensive account of the mechanisms that explain these relationships. We address this gap in the literature by theorizing how participation in UGC contributes to civic readiness. Specifically, we advance a conceptual model relating the attributes of UGC involvement to civic readiness through two concurrent processes: a civic learning process that relates the attributes to civic ability and a self-determination process that relates them to civic motivation. In doing so, we suggest that in addition to the development of civic skills, participation in UGC also contributes to civic readiness by promoting the perception that such participation is self-determined. The result is the development of competent and engaged citizens.

דמוקרטיה היברידית: טכנולוגיה אינטרנטית בשירות הדמוקרטיה <br>Hybrid Democracy: Using the Internet for Democracy

תקציר בעברית: הפרלמנטרית מבוססת על ההנחה כי בשל גודלה של המדינה המודרנית וריבוי ההחלטות הפוליטיות, ההכרעות יתקבלו באמצעות נציגים שייבחרו לפרלמנט על ידי הציבור. המאמר בוחן הנחה זו באמצעות דיון בתחום הטלדמוקרטיה (teledemocracy, cyberdemocracy או E - democracy), המכונה במאמר הדמוקרטיה הטכנולוגית. המטרה הראשונה של המאמר היא לבחון כיצד ניצול הטכנולוגיה האינטרנטית מסייע לפתרון האתגרים הטכניים הטמונים בהפקת הבחירות לפרלמנט – ובתורו עשוי אולי לתרום להגדלת המוטיבציה האזרחית ליטול חלק גם בהליך הצבעה אזרחית ישירה על חקיקה. המטרה השנייה היא דיון בעלות והתועלת המופקים מהגדלת היקף המעורבות האזרחית בשל השימוש באמצעים הטכנולוגיים במשטר הפרלמנטרי. החידוש במאמר הוא כי במסגרת הטכנולוגית, בה מנוצלת הטכנולוגיה האינטרנטית להגדלת היקף המעורבות האזרחית בהצבעה לפרלמנט ובהליך החקיקה, עולה התועלת על העלות. מסקנה הנובעת מתוך הדיון ביתרונות ובחסרונות של הטכנולוגית, היא כי הפתרונות המוצעים עשויים להקהות משמעותית את השפעת הקשיים והאתגרים השונים, בעוד התועלת לדמוקרטיזציה של המשטר הפוליטי נשארת על כנה. תוצר לוואי של המאמר הוא הצעה למודל משטרי, המתאפיין בהכלאת המעורבות האזרחית בפעילות הפרלמנט, המכונה דמוקרטיה היברידית, לפיה המעורבות האזרחית בהליך החקיקה היא חלק אינטגרלי במשטר הפרלמנטרי ולא נספח עודף. English Abstract: Parliamentary democracy is based on the assumption that due to the size of the modern state and the multiplicity of political decisions, decisions will be made through representatives elected to parliament by the public. The article examines this assumption through a discussion in the field of teledemocracy (cyberdemocracy, or e-democracy), known in the article as democracy. The first aim of the article is to examine how the use of Internet technology helps to solve the technical challenges inherent in producing parliamentary elections - and in turn, may contribute to increasing civic motivation to take part in the direct civic voting process. The second objective is a discussion of costs and benefits derived from increasing the extent of civic engagement due to the use of technological means in the parliamentary regime. The novelty of the article is that in the context of technological in which Internet technology is used to increase the scope of civic involvement in voting in parliament and the legislative process, the benefit outweighs the cost. A conclusion that emerges from the discussion of the pros and cons of technological from which it emerges that the proposed solutions may significantly blunt the impact of the various difficulties and challenges, while the benefit to a democratization of the political regime remains unchanged. A by-product of the article is a proposal for a regime model, which is characterized by the hybridization of civic involvement in the parliamentary activity, known as hybrid democracy, according to which civic involvement in the legislative process is an integral part of the parliamentary regime and not an appendix.

Integrating Thomistic virtue ethics with an Eriksonian identity perspective: A new moral identity assessment

ABSTRACT Psychologists have broadly conceptualized moral identity as the degree to which one prioritizes and defines oneself in terms of moral goals, values, and commitments. We offer a new moral identity measure: one that integrates philosophical ethical theory with an Eriksonian identity perspective specific to adolescence and emerging adulthood. Participants (N = 215) completed our new measure along with four other measures of moral behaviors and motivations. Participants formed unique clusters based on (a) choosing Thomistic virtues versus choosing non-virtues, and (b) the degree to which they reflected upon and committed to their chosen virtues/non-virtues. We found expected group differences among the clusters in integrity and civic engagement motivation, providing evidence of validity. Our new measure offers a promising approach to moral education for adolescents and emerging adults.

The PFAD-HEC Model: Impacts of News Attributes and Use Motivations on Selective News Exposure

Abstract This study examined effects of four common news attributes—personalization, fragmentation, authority–disorder bias, and dramatization (PFAD)—on news exposure and the moderating impacts of hedonic, epistemic, and civic news use motivations. In a lab experiment, participants browsed online news while selective exposure was unobtrusively logged. Findings yielded longer exposure to personalized and dramatized articles and news with low authority–disorder bias. Fragmentation had no significant impact. However, selective exposure to fragmented news was influenced by participants’ political understanding (epistemic motivation), exposure to personalization by news enjoyment (hedonic motivation), and exposure to authority–disorder bias by civic duty to keep informed (civic motivation). Results suggest that news styles may need to become more diversified to better address the informational needs of today’s fragmented audiences.

The research about psychological determinants of the civil identity formation in adolescence

The article presents the theoretical model of the study of civil identity. The model of the civil identity research is presented as the ratio of two indicators: the status of civil identity and the content of its structural components (cognitive, emotional-evaluative, need-motivational). At the cognitive component level the psychological determinant of the civil identity formation is determined as the ability to conceptualization in the field of civil problems; at the emotional-evaluative level – the combination features of positive / negative civil identity valence and the personality reflexivity level; at the emotional-evaluative component level – the nature structural organization of the adolescents’ civic activity motivation. As the result of the empirical research it is revealed that the process of the status of civil identity formation is due to the selected psychological determinants and is characterized by the following regularities: the transition from lower statuses (diffuse and predefined) to higher (moratorium and reached) is accompanied by the progressive change of the development of the ability to conceptualize, the changes in the motives of the structural connections content and the young people’s civil activity motivation structure differentiation, and the differences in the priority type of emotionalevaluative attitude to civic identity.

Demarcation and The Created Controversy

The problem of demarcation continues to attract attention, in part because solutions are perceived to have enormous social significance. The civic motivation, however, I argue is in tension with the heterogeneity of the sciences. Philosophers of science would be better employed reflecting on the features, causes, and consequences, of created, scientific controversies. These arise when relevant experts are in broad agreement about what conclusions can sensibly be drawn from available evidence, but the public perceives an expert community deeply divided and conclusions that are plagued by profound and systemic uncertainty. In the second part of the paper I explore this concept further.

Libraries at the Crossroads of the Digital Content Divide: Pathways for Information Continuity in a Youth-Led Geospatial Technology Program

This article reviews the implementation and outcomes of a social action research, university-community partnership titled Building Information Technology Skills (BITS). BITS trains high school–age youth in geographic field methods to gather and analyze geospatial information as a means of fostering their civic engagement and motivation to persist in the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines. The program was designed from its inception to be culturally, historically, and geographically relevant. In order to accomplish this, the authors leveraged access to and use of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection as a beginning point for the youth in the program to consider and focus on the relationships between place, history, and digital geospatial technologies. This was achieved by introducing the youth involved in the program to geographic information through an inventory of historic markers depicting African American sites of interest in Philadelphia. The primary aim of the social action methods employed was to simultaneously increase the interest, engagement and geographic skills among the youth participants and to create a digital archive related to the historic markers that could in and of itself become a resource for the education of youth and community members in Philadelphia. Use of the Blockson Collection anchored the program's goals of a) advancing digital inclusion and digital content creation among relatively under-represented communities and b) promoting youth empowerment by fostering the development of STEM skills and engagement within a university setting. In grounding the acquisition of field methods and geospatial information technology skills in an understanding of local history and culture, the BITS program mutually reinforces the dual-objective of advancing STEM engagement and creating a more-empowering geography for students to learn from.

Contesting Citizenship in the Arab Revolutions: Youth, Women, and Refugees

Focusing on youth, women, and refugees in the context of the ongoing Arab revolutions, this article explores how constructions of citizenship are being challenged. More than 40 percent of the population in the Arab world is under the age of eighteen, and youth are expressing a strong civic motivation and agency for change. Second, with regard to women’s participation in the Arab revolutions, while highly visible on the Arab streets, to date they have been largely excluded from participating in subsequent more formal political processes. Third, the ensuing large refugee populations in the Arab world further challenge understandings of citizenship. This article proposes that exploring the role of youth, women, and refugees in contesting citizenship in the ongoing revolutions of the Arab world challenges not only conceptions of citizenship in the Arab world but also how we understand conceptions of civil society.

Doing without Love: Civic Motivation, Affection, and Identification

There are important moral reasons for people to contribute to the democratic polities of which they are citizens. But recognition of these reasons, even when supported by considerations of narrow self-interest and by certain habits and tastes, is insufficient to reliably motivate most people. Patriotic love promises to make up the motivational shortfall, but at a high price: love of one's polity impairs one's capacity to see that polity's weaknesses and faults. This price might be worth paying if patriotic love were the only available solution to the civic motivation problem. But civic identification is an attractive alternative. Identification can be separated from affection, both conceptually and psychologically. And civic identification does not impair civic judgment as severely as patriotic love does. The best solution to the civic motivation problem is therefore to cultivate civic identification without, as far as possible, arousing patriotic love.

An expectancy-value perspective of civic education motivation, learning and desirable outcomes

The present study assessed the mediating role of expectancy for success and value beliefs in civic education in linking socio-academic factors (gender, ethnicity, school level and prior achievement) to desirable civic attributes. The sample comprised 1664 students in their Year-7–Year-12 (mean age = 14.79, range = 12–18). Structural equation modelling showed that, relative to expectancy belief, value belief emerged as a stronger predictor and its effects were more generalised across outcomes (society-oriented future goal, civic efficacy, patriotism, awareness of good citizenship and perceived functions of education/school in fostering civic qualities) – the finding that generalised across key student groupings. Further, ethnic minority students and older students were found to have less favourable valuing of civic education and less positive profiles of civic attributes. Taken together, findings hold important theoretical and applied implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to enhance students’ civic education motivation, learning and desirable outcomes.

Citizens’ Europe: Crowded out by economic focus

Over the last ten years the European unification project seemed to rely overwhelmingly on progress in economic terms. The most prominent achievements — the Single Market, the harmonisation of market regulation, the euro — were all driven by an economic rationale. However, attempts to rescue Europe from the ongoing financial crisis call for mutual support and solidarity, concepts that can hardly be derived from pure economic reasoning. This leads to an important question that has been too long neglected: what is the political and civic motivation for a united Europe? Besides a great desire to stabilise peace in Europe, the origins of the unification activities also included mutual interest in language, culture, habits and people in neighbouring countries. Has this been abandoned in favour of a purely economic vision? Or are the economic arguments merely the easiest to promote to the European population? What message does this send in times of mistrust in markets and dim economic prospects for the eurozone? Can a political, cultural and civic European spirit still be reinvigorated, and if so, how?

Civic Reflection: A Pedagogical Teaching Strategy to Enhance Student Civic Engagement

This article presents a pedagogical strategy using civic reflection to engage undergraduate social work students in self-reflection and intergroup dialogue on civic engagement. This module consisted of three components: the Civic Responsibility Behavior Questionnaire, which measured civil, political, and social behavior as well as civic efficacy and motivation; a civic reflection module, which promoted dialogue on associating, serving, giving, and leading via poems and stories; and content analysis, which examined student evaluations of the civic reflection experience. Findings revealed that students had knowledge of civic engagement and increased their level of civic efficacy and motivation. For social work education, assessing students’ level of civic engagement and developing teaching strategies that meet their learning needs are indicated.

Framing young citizens: explicit invitation and implicit exclusion on youth civic websites

This paper takes as its focus discourses about young people, intercultural citizenship, voice and participation on a range of youth civic websites surveyed during the project CivicWeb. This was a 3-year, seven-country European Commission funded study of young people, the Internet and civic participation. Specifically, it calls upon evidence from qualitative case studies of three contemporary civic websites in Britain, the UK Youth Parliament, European Youth Portal and MuslimYouth.Net, including textual analysis as well as interviews with key producers and young users of these and other civic sites. In light of current debates around the best means of engaging young people in civic activities on- and offline, the paper seeks to answer questions about the potential benefits and dangers of producers’ pedagogic styles, ideological perspectives and normative choices in relation to young people's civic motivation and efficacy. Finally the paper looks at the match or disjuncture between the sites’ missions for youth citizenship and the actual young people who respond to the sites’ address and ethos and asks how more civic producers can move towards a situated, motivating and inclusive model of communication on- and offline.

Creating Civic Bureaucrats

ABSTRACT Kirlin (1996a; 1996b) argued that big questions of public management should be placed within a democratic framework emphasizing government's role in creating “civic infrastructure.” For this study, those who build civic infrastructure are called “civic bureaucrats,” and new measures (Civic Bureaucrat Scale and subscales:civic skills, faith in the public, deliberative democracy value, civic motivation, and political system value) are used to examine which factors are associated with encouraging public servants, such as U.S. city planners, to pursue democratic processes. These measures are different from those that examine public service or public participation, and are more focused on finding public servants guided by democratic values. Variables that might influence civic bureaucrats are individual, job, work, and community characteristics. Regression results found Civic Bureaucrat levels associated with gender (being a woman), dedication to civic duty, citizens bashing government, cities’ civic capital levels, and non-competitive elections. Notably, Civic Bureaucrat levels go up when elections are less competitive, suggesting civic bureaucrats picking up the slack when democratic institutions falter. Understanding such factors sheds light on what boosts and saps the civic energies of public servants.

A Tale of Two Campaigns or Why '92's Voters Forced a Presidential Campaign Better Than '88's and How It Could Happen Again

This paper presents evidence showing that voters paid more attention, expected an economic policy debate, and appraised candidates more closely during the 1992 than during the 1988 presidential election campaign. By increasing candidate responsiveness, this greater voter focus helped create greater democratic accountability. But it was economic anxiety and Ross Perot, not increased civic motivation, that best explained the improvements. Can voters mobilize themselves? Not without basic changes in their civic self-concepts.