Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, Bert Klandermans, and Agnes Akkerman (VU Amsterdam): Does Civic Participation Stimulate Political Activity? Chris Wells (Wisconsin) et al: When We Stop Talking Politics: The Maintenance and Closing of Conversation in Contentious Times. Melissa Harris interviews Teresa Bejan, author of Mere Civility (and more). Is it time to retire the word “citizen”? Kate Reed Petty wonders. Geoff Pfeifer (WPI): Whither Citizenship in the Age of Trump. What is to be done? Barrett Brown on why it is time to consider alternate systems of governance. Our world outsmarts us: Social problems are fantastically complex, while human minds are severely under-engineered — is democracy doomed?
Technology is changing the way people think about — and participate in — democratic society; what does that mean for democracy? A scholar asks, “Can democracy survive the Internet?” Treat people as citizens: How a generation of political thinkers has underestimated the abilities of ordinary people and undermined democracy. “Democracy vouchers” aim to amplify low-income voices, to conservative ire. You can download Teaching Civic Engagement Across the Disciplines, ed. Elizabeth C. Matto, Alison Rios Millett McCartney, Elizabeth A. Bennion, and Dick Simpson.
