Civic engagement

Not to be confused with Community engagement.
"Civic duty" redirects here. For the film, see Civic Duty (film).
Volunteering is an important type of civic engagement. Pictured are volunteers cleaning up after the 2012 Hurricane Sandy.

Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern.[1] Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.

Civic engagement is "a process in which people take collective action to address issues of public concern" and is "instrumental to democracy".[2] Underrepresentation of groups in the government causes issues faced by groups such as minority, low-income, and younger groups to be overlooked or ignored. In turn, issues for higher voting groups are addressed more frequently, causing more bills to be passed to fix these problems.[3]

  1. ^ Delli, Michael. "Civic Engagement".APA.Org. American Psychological Association, n.d. Web. 25 April 2016.
  2. ^ Checkoway, B., & Aldana, A. (2013). Four forms of youth civic engagement for diverse democracy. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(11), 1894–1899. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.09.005
  3. ^ Griffin, J., Newman, B., & Ebooks Corporation. (2008). Minority report: Evaluating political equality in America (Ebook Library (EBL) (DDA)). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.