Civic Projects Research Articles

Building Nationalism through Digital-Based Political Education

This research discusses implementing digital-based political education and nationalism-building strategies for the younger generation in Indonesia's nation-building context. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method with a literature review approach. The study highlight the importance of political education as a vital instrument in strengthening political awareness and digital literacy in society. Challenges such as low political awareness and the spread of hoaxes affect the effectiveness of digital-based political education. The proposed strategies, such as curating relevant content, active participation in social media, online training, collaboration with figures and influencers, and civic projects, can help overcome these challenges. Periodic evaluations are needed to assess the effectiveness of strategies and tactics. By combining creative approaches in digital-based political education and focusing on building nationalistic character in the younger generation, this research shows great potential to increase political participation and strengthen national identity among the younger generation.

Urban green governance and mechanisms of generation of ecosystem services: Milan’s green governance models

ABSTRACTThis paper studies the governance of the green spaces in the metropolitan area of Milan, aiming to understand the political mechanisms that underpin the generation of ecosystem services in the urban context. Based on semi-structured interviews to relevant policymakers and stakeholders and on the study of planning documents and greening policies, the research identifies the main actors who are involved in green planning and management in the city and in the metropolitan area. By analysing their green management and planning roles, economic resources and greening visions and priorities, the study depicts five coexisting green governance models. In particular, the research highlights the decreasing influence of public institutions in green planning and management and the rising relevance of private-public collaborations. These dynamics of green governance may affect the generation and the distribution of ecosystem services. On the one hand, greening in private-led regeneration processes tend toward recreational and final ecosystem services, aiming to raise land values. On the other hand, the civic projects of afforestation have evolved in territorial initiatives that go beyond the mere objective of implementing new green spaces, looking at broader planning themes – i.e. soft mobility and social welfare – demanding a stronger metropolitan coordination.

Новостные медиа как источник мобилизации гражданского активизма

The article analyzes the role of news media in informing and involving the population, including young people, in civic activism. The problem of the influence of digital technologies on the formation of civic activism is raised. Emphasis is placed on the context of the presence in the media space of news that can popularize civic activism. The content analysis study covered 22 Internet resources in 8 federal districts of Russia (12,590 posts for July 2023), as well as all publications in the online publication e1.ru for the period 2019–2023 (82,130 posts). The results of the analysis allowed us to perform a thematic typology of publications about civic activ-ism; to fix the share of these posts in the structure of the news agenda; to identify the presence of appeals to participate in civic projects and determine the situation in the media environment as ineffective for solving the problem of involving the population in civic activism. Recommendations for optimizing media content are of-fered.

He Tuhi He Uta He Utu: Architecture As a Tool of Reply

ABSTRACT As the architectural profession adopts a more enlightened and collaborative turn by increasing engagement with indigenous knowledges, this paper explores the case study of Auckland Free Library and Art Gallery (1885–1888) and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki (2008–2011). Using archival material and grey literature, the critical analysis invites us to consider trans-Tasman circulations that impact the production of architecture. With a sustained focus on three key periods of time: pre-federation, the 1970s and the 2000s the entanglement of the Australian and New Zealand settler colonial project is considered and indigenous methods to subvert cultural schema through civic architecture are revealed. Supporting the findings of earlier research in this under explored field, this paper also finds that continuing tensions are inherent within civic projects that seek to represent indigeneity. Finally, the limit of contemporary architecture to fabricate “new” optimism is theorised, with indeterminate and unsatisfying conclusions from which further research directions emerge.

Civil Society Associations and Political Participation: A Normative Exploration

This paper aims to explore the relation between civil society associations and political participation in a normative framework. Civil society associations are widely regarded as the basis for citizen involvement and participation, and as the location for democratic action. There is an increasing scholarly recognition that associationalism is essential for a healthy democratic society for the reason that it tends to strengthen democratic political culture. Associations encourage citizens to take part in public discourse and civic projects. And, thus they shape civic engagement. Through such participation and communicative interaction, identity formation also takes place. Associational members, as a result, learn public-spiritedness and democratic art of participation. It leads us to the debate on ascriptive and voluntary associations in civil society. At the same time, the notion of associational dichotomy is much contested. It is argued that exploration of the link between civil society associations and political participation calls for a much more intricate analysis that would entail going beyond associational dichotomy, particularly in the Indian context. The research presented in this paper, based on analysis of some prominent and relevant theoretical conceptions, aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the relationship between civil society, active citizenship, and democracy.

The Color of Air

May 01 2023 The Color of Air Nate Imai, Nate Imai Nate Imai is an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech's College of Architecture. His research focuses on the intersection of architecture and urban design and leverages computational design and digital fabrication to activate public space within the built environment. Nate received his B. A. in Architectural Studies from UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design and holds an M. Arch from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. His previous teaching experience includes the University of Tennessee, Woodbury University, and Harvard University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Matt Convay, Matt Convay Matt Convay is a Computational Design Leader and faculty at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design and USC School of Architecture. His research work focuses on programming literacy and exploring architectural design through contemporary digital methods such as scripting, animation, and game engines. He received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Rachel Lee Rachel Lee Rachel Lee is a registered architect and associate at CO Architects and a LEED Green Associate. Her current projects include a 600,000-s.f. medical complex and 352,000-s.f. outpatient clinic in which her passion for healthcare design and Universal Design is reflected. She previously worked on award-winning exhibition design, single-family residential, commercial, and civic projects. Rachel received her B. A. in Architectural Studies and Master of Architecture from UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Nate Imai Nate Imai is an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech's College of Architecture. His research focuses on the intersection of architecture and urban design and leverages computational design and digital fabrication to activate public space within the built environment. Nate received his B. A. in Architectural Studies from UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design and holds an M. Arch from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. His previous teaching experience includes the University of Tennessee, Woodbury University, and Harvard University. Matt Convay Matt Convay is a Computational Design Leader and faculty at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design and USC School of Architecture. His research work focuses on programming literacy and exploring architectural design through contemporary digital methods such as scripting, animation, and game engines. He received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Rachel Lee Rachel Lee is a registered architect and associate at CO Architects and a LEED Green Associate. Her current projects include a 600,000-s.f. medical complex and 352,000-s.f. outpatient clinic in which her passion for healthcare design and Universal Design is reflected. She previously worked on award-winning exhibition design, single-family residential, commercial, and civic projects. Rachel received her B. A. in Architectural Studies and Master of Architecture from UCLA's Department of Architecture and Urban Design. Online ISSN: 2572-7338 Print ISSN: 1091-711X © 2023 Nate Imai, Matt Convay, and Rachel Lee2023Nate Imai, Matt Convay, and Rachel Lee Thresholds (2023) (51): 52–57. https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00788 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Nate Imai, Matt Convay, Rachel Lee; The Color of Air. Thresholds 2023; (51): 52–57. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/thld_a_00788 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsThresholds Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2023 Nate Imai, Matt Convay, and Rachel Lee2023Nate Imai, Matt Convay, and Rachel Lee Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

A review on the success factors of crowdfunding-based to finance small-scale infrastructure projects

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) schemes in delivering economic and social infrastructure are growing in developing countries worldwide. Various developing countries, including Indonesia, has also been preparing and developing numerous projects, ranging from larger-scale economic infrastructures that include toll roads to multifunction satellites and smaller-scale social infrastructures that include water supply, solid-waste management, and regional hospital projects. With the increasing numbers of smaller infrastructure projects proposed by the local government, attracting financers to invest in these projects is still a challenge the government faces. Financial institutions are still averse to making the appraisal and due diligence to such projects, owing to the nature of little historical evidence of private finance involvement in small-scale infrastructure finance. In some western countries, citizens have taken the initiative to forward and finance their local infrastructure development due to realizing the social, economic, and environmental benefits of civic projects for the local community. Theoretical research has shown the opportunity of utilizing crowdfunding for local urban infrastructure; however, the factors contributing to benefit from this finance method are yet to be identified. This paper seeks to answer questions on what success factors contribute to the opportunity to adapt the crowdfunding scheme to finance a smaller-scale urban infrastructure project by conducting qualitative literature review.

Vaccine acceptance in rural India: Engaging faith leaders as vaccine ambassadors.

IntroductionReligious faith is a key marker of identity and shapes community perspectives and trust. Faith leader involvement in vaccine campaigns in India have been beneficial to counter misinformation regarding infectious diseases such as polio. Faith leaders are influential stakeholders who bear potential to enhance public confidence in vaccine campaigns.ContextWhile vaccine coverage has been increasing in India, inequities abound, especially in populations with historically low vaccine confidence. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major disruptions in delivery of routine immunization services for children. To address these challenges, we co-designed interventions aimed at contextual communication strategies and peer support. Engaging faith leaders was an important part of this intervention. In this report we describe our experience and highlight the perspectives of faith leaders and their expectations of the outcomes for this intervention.Programmatic elementsThe CIVIC Project, conducted from January to December 2021 aimed to engage caregivers, community health workers and key stakeholders, particularly, faith leaders in co-designing interventions to address vaccine hesitancy in Mewat. The project, deeply rooted in community based participatory research, used a three-E approach (Exploration of community perspectives, Establishment of vaccine trust and awareness, Engagement in vaccine promotion activities) to successfully engage faith leaders in the design and dissemination of media messages advocating for vaccine acceptance and uptake.Lessons learnedThe involvement of faith leaders in the intervention benefited the community in two ways. First, faith leaders were spotlighted via videos, often disseminating advice and personal anecdotes about vaccines, thus reassuring caregivers and community members who previously expressed distrust in vaccines. Second, involvement of trusted faith leaders provided a platform for a two-way dialogue for the community to openly discuss and address myths and misconceptions regarding vaccines. This project provided the learning that co-creating interventions with faith leaders who are often gatekeepers of close-knit communities can lead to the development of vaccine positive messaging that community members relate with, motivating increased vaccine confidence.

Meritocracy, education, and the civic project: A reply to commentaries on The Tyranny of Merit

Michael Sandel replies to commentaries on his book The Tyranny of Merit, focusing on meritocracy and education, the role of merit and grace in economic discourse, and the resentment that fueled the populist backlash against elites.

Children teaching future teachers: A civic literacy project on the Border Wall during the Trump regime

The Civic Literacy Project (CLP) was created, by colleagues and me, out of a concern for how future teachers learn to teach in field-based experiences. In this article I describe the CLP curriculum-making experiences of two future teachers, one Somali-American and one white, with a small group of 5th graders who wanted to learn about the Border Wall during the Trump Regime. I examine how the future teachers’ conception of teaching and curriculum was crucially informed by listening to and working with their young students. Too often, as teacher educators, we create and sanction field experiences for future teachers that teach compliance to failing systems where children are seen as passive recipients of prepackaged curriculum. CLP was grounded in pedagogies of progressive, critical, and inquiry learning traditions which take children’s topics of concern as the basis of curriculum making. I argue for transformative change in teacher education’s approach to field experiences for future teachers—including collaboration instead of surveillance and co-inquiry instead of allegiance to scripted curriculum.

Crowd control

We examine the rise of crowdfunding platforms in the wake of the global financial crisis, particularly the claim that they offer an alternative to established methods of raising capital for real estate investment, enterprise development, and civic projects. We interrogate how these novel methods of aggregating users and their money in digital space produce different collective subjectivities. Drawing from an industry study of civic crowdfunding portals in the United States and legal research into the regulatory apparatus governing them, we put forth a two-part typology to help make sense of the varied business models of crowdfunding platforms and the ways in which those models invoke and harness crowds as concrete social formations. The first distinguishes crowdfunding platforms based on what is being circulated—the substance of the payment and the economic relations it embodies and creates. The second focuses on the legal dimension of these relations, both within the transaction and in the way sites constitute the crowd through the inherited financial-regulatory vocabularies governing the issuance of securities.

Unlikely allies in preventing sexual misconduct: Student led prevention efforts in a technical communication classroom

Students' participation in relevant service learning can have a unique impact on their institution of higher education, if provided the opportunity. This article explores student-designed sexual misconduct prevention efforts taking place in an undergraduate project management course at one institution of higher education. We found that involving students in particular kinds of campus communication design and implementation simultaneously improved those efforts and offered students the opportunity to participate in impactful civic projects. In our article, we first examine the most common approach to sexual misconduct prevention, while considering its limitations. We then introduce a nontraditional collaboration---technical communication student involvement within prevention work---which resulted in new efforts. Finally, we illustrate how instructors can integrate similar collaborations.

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.

Political Ecologies of Participation

This paper presents an unexpected story about the outcomes of a civic project. CSCW and HCI scholarship has argued for a long-term perspective to assess civic projects and to understand how local communities appropriate - or maybe disregard - the material outcomes of these types of interventions. Nevertheless, it is still unclear how to interpret the outcomes of such projects and how to make sense of their social impact on the wider contexts they are bound to. This article draws on the notion of "political ecologies of participation" to illustrate: i) how outcomes of socially engaged projects circulate through communities and can be appropriated independently of the research inquiries they stem from; and ii) how, through such processes, impact is reconfigured as issues are added to shared concerns. The paper sets out by analyzing the entanglement of actors, meanings (e.g., values, narratives, opinions) and forms of participation that were configured throughout the transformation observed. Attention is then drawn to their political qualities, including their inherent openness and their capacity to produce change locally. The paper introduces four analytical sensitivities illustrating how thinking with political ecologies of participation can help CSCW research focus on the longer processes whereby impact can be configured.

Lemons Into Lemonade

In response to shifting demographics, financial strain, and an existential crisis about their value and place in the twenty-first century world, small liberal arts colleges are changing -- some choosing to close while others make drastic changes to curricular and programmatic offerings to demonstrate innovation and adaptation. This paper will present a case study of these tensions and responses through discussion of one college’s simultaneous commitment to Interfaith Engagement and discontinuance of the Religion Major and Minor. This reality crystalizes the tension and disconnect between the curricular and civic projects of interreligious studies and interfaith engagement. At the same time, this reality opens the door to a pragmatic solution that intentionally integrates these two in a manner that promises to provide both an effective response to a budget driven problem and a potential new paradigm for curricular and co-curricular integration and community-based learning for higher education as a whole.

Moral Foundations, Shared Civic Projects and Rossi’s Kant

Although I quickly review Philip Rossi’s larger argument in The Ethical Commonwealth in History, my focus in this article is on the implications of Rossi’s work for our characterizations of justice and citizenship on a Kantian account. For in arguing that a wise reading of Kant’s political theory allows us better to grasp his overarching aims, Rossi provides convincing evidence for a pair of challenges to the currently popular interpretation of that theory. These address the relationship between Kant’s moral and political theories and the nature of the political task or project that Kantian citizens undertake. In challenging popular readings of these elements of Kant’s view, I suggest, Rossi supports an interpretation of Kantian political thought with particular resonance for our time.

From the Radical Psychology Movement to STS: A Journey From the 1960s in Multiple Parts

ABSTRACT Activism in the late-1960s through the early 1970s in the radical psychology movement created the foundation for an intellectual critique and political practice that was part of a group of overall radical science movements that would become important components of STS in practice. The radical psychology movement emphasized lay perspectives in science and medicine, public participation in science, alternative care, and citizen-science alliances. The anti-psychiatry movement among professionals complemented this phenomenon. Groups such as Psychologists for a Democratic Society and numerous mental patients' rights groups, publications like The Radical Therapist, radical caucuses in professional organizations, and a burgeoning feminist therapy approach helped create a major challenge to normal science in the mental health sector. Participants in these movements were connected to broader health activism and to radical science efforts. Lessons from these challenges to the status quo were useful in developing critical environmental health and justice movements later on, resulting in civic science and community-based participatory research projects which would become central elements of STS. These traditions also nourished a strong co-existence of scholarship and activism in many arenas of science and medicine.

Postcolonial Civic Identity and Youth (dis)organizing Environment: A Growth into Citizenship Analysis

The fluid realities of youth in postcolonial nation-states can reflect changing and challenging landscapes. Their engagements with environment, for example, are not only elaborated in social, political, and economical contexts, but also generated through values, beliefs, and identities. This article adds to contemporary debates by positing that discussions on postcolonial civic identities have to be accompanied by youth narratives and their considerations on nature, time, and digital world(s) by taking Malaysian youths as examples. Specifically, it attempts to theorize youth civic identity within postcolonial context(s) by scrutinizing personal narratives that are symbiotically yoked with discourses on ecology and technology. Through administering personal narratives at a suburban district in West Peninsular Malaysia, this paper opens ‘windows’ into what it means for youths to participate in civic projects. Reading these narratives from the lens of growth into citizenship , their wide-ranging experiences in civic affairs can be understood in four ways, namely, recognition, responsibilities, reconciliation, and reciprocity. Two of these emerging themes, recognition and responsibilities, will be discussed in this article. Our attempt at depicting postcolonial civic identity, therefore, is part of a large-scale investigation on civic mindedness that will compel us to reflect on unofficial, continuous accounts of youth reflecting on a sense of belongingness and what the future might bring.

Diplomacias migrantes

Ante los desafíos de la movilidad humana contemporánea es necesario pensar en la capacidad de agencia de los migrantes para defender sus derechos. Nuestro punto de partida es que es necesario ir más allá de la mirada estado-céntrica al analizar los activismos migrantes cuando en nombre de la soberanía y el interés nacional, los migrantes enfrentan entornos negativos que inhiben su libre movimiento. Con una perspectiva interdisciplinar, y en diálogo entre la sociología de la acción colectiva y la teoría diplomática, aquí proponemos la noción de diplomacias migrantes como una manera para abordar los activismos migrantes en Norteamérica, a partir de los activismos binacionales ante los procesos de deportación y retorno. En este análisis identificamos a los activismos binacionales, como proyectos cívicos posnacionales que buscan actuar aquí y allá, simultáneamente. Con un enfoque de estudio de casos múltiples usamos dos organizaciones binacionales de Norteamérica para evidenciar cómo operan este tipo de diplomacias migrantes.

Civil society events: Ambiguities and the exertion of cultural power

ABSTRACTCultural ‘events’ such as festivals and performances are increasingly used by civil society actors for a variety of goals, including the pursuit of social inclusion. Current debates around such events focus on their contradictions and associated failures, not least the illusory nature of their participatory character or their inadequacy in tackling structural dimensions such as inequality or poverty. This paper shifts the emphasis from what civil society events do not do, to what they do, illustrating how this production occurs not in spite of but through the promises that sustain events’ development. The analysis focuses on a case study of a local civic project promoted by ten non-profit groups in Milan from 2006 to 2010. As well as accounting for the growing number of civil society events, this paper highlights how events act as effective weapons of cultural power as they invite participation in pursuit of general goals, such as the promotion of social inclusion, while at the same time allowing events’ organisers to subtly control the specific meanings of the goals they are pursuing.