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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2003

Vogelsang-Coombs Vera and Bakken Larry

This essay explores the norms of civic duty, based on the legal, ethical, and practical interpretations of democratic citizenship. The authors find that interpretations of civic

Abstract

This essay explores the norms of civic duty, based on the legal, ethical, and practical interpretations of democratic citizenship. The authors find that interpretations of civic duty are dynamic and touch on a fundamental political question: What is the proper balance between elected officials and the professional civil service in a liberal democracy? They conclude that the norms of civic duty are political interpretations concerning an institutional struggle over governance as much as they are matters of law, ethics, and best practice. Successive interpretations of civic provide an opportunity for the renewal of citizenship while channeling political conflict into liberal democracy’s established institutions

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 6 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Article
Publication date: 21 August 2017

Adriana Zait

The purpose of this paper was to identify the main necessary competences for smart cities’ development. From their inception until now, smart cities are striving to clarify their…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to identify the main necessary competences for smart cities’ development. From their inception until now, smart cities are striving to clarify their identity and become better, and thus, smarter. The whole process is in many ways similar to the journey of a child in his quest of growing into a smart adult, with the help of parents and support from educators. But it is not easy to tell how we, as citizens, through civic, educational and governance structures, raise smart cities. What competences do we need? This was the main question for the present essay, generated from several theoretical and practical experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, literature analysis, synthesis and theoretical inferences, for the smart city problematiques, and induction and exploratory qualitative analysis, for soft, civilizational competences, were used.

Findings

The main conclusion is that the literature still associates the smart city especially with its hard dimension, the highly developed and intelligent technologies, including information and communication technologies (ICTs), despite a growing number of studies dedicated to the soft, human and social capital component. The intangible, soft component – the human actor – plays an equally, if not even more important role, through mechanisms affecting all classical dimensions of smart cities (smart economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, living). Civilizational competences, soft skills or human-related characteristics of cities strongly influenced by culture (at national, regional, organizational and individual levels) are crucial for the development of smart and competitive cities. Civilizational competences are grouped into four categories: enterprise culture, discoursive culture, civic culture and daily culture. If we want to make our cities smart, we need to develop these competences – first define them, then identify their antecedents or influence factors and measure them.

Research limitations/implications

The study has several limits. First, the exploratory nature in itself, with many inductive and abductive suppositions that will need further testing. Second, the literature selection has a certain degree of subjectivity owing to the fact that besides the common, classical theory of smart cities, the authors were particularly interested in rather heterodox opinions about the subject, which lead them to the inclusion of singular or isolated points of view on narrower issues.

Practical implications

The findings of this exploratory conceptual essay could be used for further testing of hypotheses on the relationship between civilizational competences and smart cities’ development.

Social implications

Local and regional administrations could use the results to increase civil society’s involvement in the development of smart cities.

Originality/value

The study points out some new connections and relations for the smart city problematiques, and explicitly suggests relating the development of smart cities to the development of civilizational competences, as a complex category of factors going beyond the unique dimension of “people” or “human and social capital” from the smart cities literature. It is an exploratory outcome, generating new research hypotheses for the relationships between smart city development and culture-related factors grouped under the “cities” civilizational competences’ label.

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 November 2009

Rafael Vázquez-García

The evolution of European Union (EU) toward a real political integration cannot omit the importance of building a European civic culture. Generating civic virtues is directly…

Abstract

The evolution of European Union (EU) toward a real political integration cannot omit the importance of building a European civic culture. Generating civic virtues is directly linked to the establishment of associative networks. In this sense, voluntary organizations, as “schools of democracy,” work as one of the main channels and mechanisms, from liberal tradition as well as republican one, to improve the quality of democracies.

Some works have already argued that involvement in voluntary organizations presents positive effects on several elements that shape political culture in a country, by increasing political interest in public affairs, growing individual political efficacy, encouraging people to put in practice a broader socio-political activism, etc. Only by this way, it is possible to create a genuine “European public sphere,” where public debate and independent judgements can exist beyond EU institutions.

From that theoretic framework, this document expounds the connections between socio-political participation in voluntary organizations and some elements of political culture linked to civic skills. The first wave of the European Social Survey (2002–2003) will be used as the main data source for a comparative analysis among more than twenty European countries.

Details

Civil Society in Comparative Perspective
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-608-3

Article
Publication date: 16 December 2022

David D. Chrislip, David MacPhee and Patti Schmitt

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…

Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Practical implications

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

International Journal of Public Leadership, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4929

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 14 August 2002

Abstract

Details

New Paradigms and Recurring Paradoxes in Education for Citizenship: An International Comparison
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76230-821-7

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2006

Nadia Caidi

The purpose of this article is to examine the changing role and image of libraries and librarians, along with the overall information culture prevalent in four Central and Eastern…

2118

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to examine the changing role and image of libraries and librarians, along with the overall information culture prevalent in four Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that were undergoing socio‐political changes. The core question investigated in this article is whether libraries as social and cultural institutions have a role to play in enabling individuals to acquire the types of skills and competencies that extend far beyond the realm of the library walls to encompass practices that translate into various spheres of individuals' lives, including their participation in political, economic and civic life.

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews were conducted in 1999 with 49 library policymakers in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (and selected follow‐up interviews were conducted in 2002), to shed light on the role of libraries in social and political reconfigurations of their nations.

Findings

The library is a ubiquitous component of the information environment of any society and plays a critical role in connecting information resources and services with users. Yet, despite their ubiquity and centrality in the production, management and dissemination of information in society, libraries have been largely neglected in many CEE countries. Libraries can play a critical role in political reconfiguration of their nation by building the types of skills and competencies that will empower individuals and thereby contribute to shaping an information culture that imeets the needs of the time.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to one's understanding of the political dimensions of the provision of information resources.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 62 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 October 2007

Kuno Schedler and Isabella Proeller

Most scholars in public administration and management research would agree that there is a connection between the culture of a nation or region and the way management in public…

Abstract

Most scholars in public administration and management research would agree that there is a connection between the culture of a nation or region and the way management in public administration is structured and working (“public management arrangements”). However, to be incorporated into public management research and theory, a more precise notion about the forms, ways, and mechanisms of the interlinkage between societal culture and public management is required. A look into public management literature reveals that wide use and reference is made to the importance and influence of culture on public management arrangements – mostly, though, using the term “culture” as a shortcut for “organizational culture”. Public management treatises stress the influence of past events and contexts for the specific functioning and establishment of organizations, rules, and perceptions which in turn have great influence on the reception and functioning of public management mechanisms (Heady, 1996; Jann, 1983; Schröter, 2000; Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2004). Elsewise, organizational culture – or more precisely change thereof – is claimed to be the result of public management efforts (Ridley, 2000; Schedler & Proeller, 2000). In sum, the interlinkage between culture and public management is there, but is not systematically and explicitly incorporated by referring to adequate theory. Although cultural theory has gained considerable attention (Hood, 1998), there are still other concepts for the analysis of cultural facts that may be of interest to the subject, too.

Details

Cultural Aspects of Public Management Reform
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1400-3

Abstract

Details

Arts and Academia
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-730-5

Book part
Publication date: 16 November 2022

Mary Sweatman and Alan Warner

There have been great advances in our understanding of how universities effectively undertake community engagement, with research focused upon understanding community partner

Abstract

There have been great advances in our understanding of how universities effectively undertake community engagement, with research focused upon understanding community partner perspectives and outcomes (see Andrée et al., 2014; Srinivas et al., 2015; Sweatman & Warner, 2020), and democratic civic engagement (see Hall et al., 2013; Saltmarsh et al., 2009). This chapter builds on these studies to critically examine one university’s capacities to coordinate institutional-level change that supports and advances community-engagement scholarship. A small, rural, undergraduate university in Nova Scotia, Canada, called Acadia University was used as the case study site for this examination. Using an action research case study design, we gathered data from multiple sources within and outside of the University over a three-year period. Through this investigation Acadia’s community-engagement ethos was studied to understand if the University has the assets, resources, knowledge and motivation to create, implement and sustain democratic community engagement initiatives with community partners. From this data, key findings were categorized into three major themes: power and positionality of the University, institutional supports and barriers to engagement, and institutional assessment of community engagement initiatives. This chapter discusses these themes in depth using data from this study and current literature to unpack the practicalities and particularities of an institution committing to a deep, pervasive and integrated community engagement culture. Overall, this study found that Acadia’s community engagement ethos, as it moves towards democratic engagement while navigating systematic internal and external constraints, is diverse and complex. This study contributes to the legitimization of community engagement scholarship more broadly.

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Jed Donoghue and Bruce Tranter

Abstract

Details

Exploring Australian National Identity
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-503-6

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