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Some communities in the USA are remarkably better at responding to civic challenges than others. These communities are more competent at marshaling their resources – material and human – in service of their own needs. The authors’ purpose in this paper is to enhance their collective understanding of ideas related to community-driven change and to describe the development of a civic capacity index (CCI), a measure of a community's capacity to respond to civic challenges and disruptions like COVID-19.

The authors used a concept mapping process (akin to grounded theory) to develop the CCI. Using this process, a panel of 34 scholars and practitioners of civic leadership and civic engagement worked together to create measurable descriptors of civic capacity.

The CCI measures dynamic processes related to collective leadership, inclusion of diverse voices, how institutions and coalitions address shared challenges and collaboration among community members. Sample data from several states show the CCI's scales to have high internal reliabilities and to correlate strongly with validation scales such as collective efficacy, social justice and community connectedness. Confirmatory factor analyses support a bifactor model of a general CCI factor and six CCI scales.

With the help of the CCI, civic actors can take advantage of existing civic capacity, understand where it is lacking and build resilience for the future.

To date, most scholars have used qualitative research to determine the elements of civic capacity. The authors wanted to know what civic capacity looks like in sufficient detail to assess the extent to which it is present or not in a community. Other efforts to quantify or assess civic capacity or related ideas are less comprehensive or lack the specificity to provide guidance for building and mobilizing it in communities. This work enhances our understanding of leadership in the civic arena, a little understood aspect of leadership studies.

Undergraduate leadership courses are becoming increasingly important venues to promote civic engagement. Despite their prominence, the nature of civic engagement in leadership courses has not been examined systematically. This study examined 77 introductory undergraduate leadership courses and the role of civic engagement in these courses. Results indicate that civic engagement components are not widely utilized, and when they are part of the curricula, their implementation and design vary. Recommendations for improving undergraduate leadership curricula are offered.

The many discourses surrounding 9/11 place existing civic education in a tenuous space within the current political climate. The challenges of producing a universally acceptable interpretation and approach to democratic education have been compounded in the aftermath of 9/11. Due to a heightened sense of fear and an increased level of blind nationalism, many of the basic concepts in the Constitution, like equality, justice, and reciprocity have been temporarily de-emphasized for a more compartmentalized way of “American” living, based on concepts such as patriotism, loyalty, and safety. Given the current political climate, the time to revisit the goals of civic education as a conduit of a globalized deliberative democracy is now. The author argues that civic education programming would be better served if more emphasis were placed on the philosophical foundations of the subject.

The last ten years have shown a significant upward trend of engagement in public management reflecting a significant increase in interest in the topic. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the benefits and factors affecting the construct of civic engagement that thus far are missing in the current literature through the analysis of studies published in the main journals of management.

Through a systematic literature review, the current research tries to advance the progress in the understanding of the civic engagement construct analyzing a sample of 96 papers published in the main journals on the subject areas of “communication,” “marketing” and “public sector management.”

The literature was codified and characterized as follows: level of analysis, variables that affect civic engagement; benefits of civic engagement; and theoretic and methodological approach. This research explores the construct through an analysis of the literature found in the main scientific journals to intercept its various profiles and facets alongside the mechanisms that precede and follow its manifestation.

Public organizations can no longer do without engaging citizens in decision-making processes. Public managers can use these findings to establish a connection with their citizens and influence their publics through commitment and managerial actions that guarantee direct democracy.

This is the first research that aims to study the phenomenon in the public sphere from a multidisciplinary perspective that is as yet incomplete. An integrated vision can highlight current and future developments and eventual opportunities for further research.

The emergence of highly vocal populist movements across the globe during 2011 has put the relationship between the public agency and the citizenry under the proverbial microscope, as a common theme among protestors is the lack of the citizen's voice in governance. This article examines the historical back-and-forth that public participation and populism have taken in the United States as well as recent trends in participation theory and research, finding that authentic participation has the greatest prospects of success at the local level. It also provides suggestions for approaches that public agencies and administrators might employ in an attempt to improve the level of both citizen input and citizen satisfaction in local governance, and proposes avenues for future research.

Are education and efficiency antithetical? Does the pursuit of efficiency in education inevitably lead to misguided practices and measurement attempts that distort the character and purposes of education? Despite legitimate fears about misguided efforts at efficiency, history shows that efficiency and enlightened educational leadership can be combined beneficially. Indeed, if we want to use educational resources as wisely and effectively as possible, to benefit as many students as possible, we must evaluate the efficiency of alternative policies and practices. This article explores the issues involved, and steps required, for a balanced and appropriate pursuit of efficiency that preserves educational values and avoids the dangers of the “cult of efficiency.”

This research examines how labor union involvement shapes the civic participation of low-wage Latino immigrant workers.

Drawing on survey and semi-structured interview data gathered from a Los Angeles janitors’ labor union, I examine whether or not and how Latino immigrants apply their union experience to involvement in their children’s schools.

Results indicate that the union’s targeted member mobilization efforts produce unequal participation in union activities among immigrant workers, fostering civic and leadership skills among some and not others. At the same time, immigrant workers who do become involved in their union are then able to draw on their labor organizing and advocacy experience to address issues and concerns at their children’s schools. For some, worksite activism functions as a catalyst for newfound civic engagement; for other immigrant workers with prior civic experience in their country origin or in the United States, union involvement enhances their leadership capacity.

This empirical investigation shows how the experience of mobilizing for protests and participating in worksite campaigns allows Latino immigrant union members to overcome what are typically considered barriers to civic participation – that is, limited formal education, low occupational status, and limited English language skills. This study therefore suggests that labor union participation can have long-term effects on immigrants well beyond the benefits of a union contract.

Analyzing the 2004 U.S. General Social Survey and Korean General Social Survey, this chapter attempts to show that even similar climates of associationalism in two countries can lead to differential consequences for participatory democracy, depending on the associations’ capacities to foster civic resources. This chapter first examines whether the politically desirable traits of civic virtue and social trust essential to political participation can be developed by associational membership in the United States and Korea. Second, it investigates whether associational membership strengthens, weakens, or leaves unchanged the effects of socioeconomic resources measured by educational attainment and family income on political participation especially among association members in these two countries. The results indicate that voluntary associations in the United States, compared to those in Korea, do a better job of playing the role of civic educator and even of political equalizer. First, associational membership significantly and positively affects civic virtue and social trust in the United States. Second, associational membership does not affect civic virtue and social trust in Korea. Third, the effects of educational attainment and family income on political participation among members are weak in the United States. Fourth, the effects of educational attainment and family income on political participation among members are strong in Korea. Therefore, this chapter concludes that voluntary associations do not contribute to participatory equality in Korea despite its vibrant group-centered culture, whereas their American counterparts are relatively effective in bringing about the expected outcome.

Integrative leadership theories are thriving in the literature, yet very few studies have explored individual characteristics of integrative leadership and conditions that may promote individuals’ integrative leadership orientation. In particular, little is known about the factors that may promote undergraduate college students’ development of an orientation toward integrative leadership, although many colleges and universities are charged with developing future leaders to tackle grand societal challenges. The purpose of this study was to examine higher education institutions’ contributions to college students’ civic engagement and multicultural competence as well as the relationships between these contributions and students’ development of an integrative leadership orientation. Using a multi-institutional survey of college seniors (n = 5,922), the results of this study suggest institutional efforts to develop students’ multicultural competence and civic engagement are positively associated with undergraduate students’ development of an integrative leadership orientation.

Between 2002 and 2018, at a time when UK universities were being increasingly measured in economic and financial terms, Staffordshire University established a dedicated public engagement unit. Staffed by an experienced team of “pracademics” (Posner, 2009), the Creative Communities Unit (CCU) engaged with community members and voluntary organizations through teaching, research, and consultancy. Underpinning CCU practice was a clear set of principles influenced by those of community development, including participation, inclusion, and action-driven practice. However, despite strong community connections the work of the unit remained isolated with little coordination for public engagement at a strategic level in the university.

This chapter charts the work of the CCU over its lifespan and its influence on a strategically embedded Connected Communities Framework through which civic engagement is supported across the institution. It explores how the alignment of grass roots activity through the CCU, shifts in UK policy and a clear, institutional strategic vision for civic engagement enabled the move from public engagement as a small team activity to an institutional commitment. It concludes with a reflection on the enabling conditions that supported the journey toward a civic university.