Citizen Action and National Policy Reform

Citizen Action and National Policy Reform
Author: John Gaventa
Publisher: Zed Books
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2010-04-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781848133860

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How does citizen activism win changes in national policy? Which factors help to make myriad efforts by diverse actors add up to reform? What is needed to overcome setbacks, and to consolidate the smaller victories? These questions need answers. Aid agencies have invested heavily in supporting civil society organizations as change agents in fledgling and established democracies alike. Evidence gathered by donors, NGOs and academics demonstrates how advocacy and campaigning can reconfigure power relations and transform governance structures at the local and global levels. In the rush to go global or stay local, however, the national policy sphere was recently neglected. Today, there is growing recognition of the key role of champions of change inside national governments, and the potential of their engagement with citizen activists outside. These advances demand a better understanding of how national and local actors can combine approaches to simultaneously work the levers of change, and how their successes relate to actors and institutions at the international level. This book brings together eight studies of successful cases of citizen activism for national policy changes in South Africa, Morocco, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Turkey, India and the Philippines. They detail the dynamics and strategies that have led to the introduction, change or effective implementation of policies responding to a range of rights deficits. Drawing on influential social science theory about how political and social change occurs, the book brings new empirical insights to bear on it, both challenging and enriching current understandings.

I, Citizen

I, Citizen
Author: Tony Woodlief
Publisher: Encounter Books
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1641772115

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This is a story of hope, but also of peril. It began when our nation’s polarized political class started conscripting everyday citizens into its culture war. From their commanding heights in political parties, media, academia, and government, these partisans have attacked one another for years, but increasingly they’ve convinced everyday Americans to join the fray. Why should we feel such animosity toward our fellow citizens, our neighbors, even our own kin? Because we’ve fallen for the false narrative, eagerly promoted by pundits on the Left and the Right, that citizens who happen to vote Democrat or Republican are enthusiastic supporters of Team Blue or Team Red. Aside from a minority of party activists and partisans, however, most voters are simply trying to choose the lesser of two evils. The real threat to our union isn’t Red vs. Blue America, it’s the quiet collusion within our nation’s political class to take away that most American of freedoms: our right to self-governance. Even as partisans work overtime to divide Americans against one another, they’ve erected a system under which we ordinary citizens don’t have a voice in the decisions that affect our lives. From foreign wars to how local libraries are run, authority no longer resides with We the People, but amongst unaccountable officials. The political class has stolen our birthright and set us at one another’s throats. This is the story of how that happened and what we can do about it. America stands at a precipice, but there’s still time to reclaim authority over our lives and communities.

Communication and Social Change

Communication and Social Change
Author: Thomas Tufte
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2017-04-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1509517812

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How do the communication practices of governments, NGOs and social movements enhance opportunities for citizen-led change? In this incisive book, Thomas Tufte makes a call for a fundamental rethinking of what it takes to enable citizens’ voices, participation and power in processes of social change. Drawing on examples ranging from the Indignados movement in Spain to media activists in Brazil, from rural community workers in Malawi to UNICEF’s global outreach programmes, he presents cutting-edge debates about the role of media and communication in enhancing social change. He offers both new and contested ideas of approaching social change from below, and highlights the need for institutions – governments and civil society organizations alike – to be in sync with their constituencies. Communication and Social Change provides essential insights to students and scholars of media and communications, as well as anyone concerned with the practices and processes that lead to citizenship, democracy and social justice.

Impact the World

Impact the World
Author: Carrie Rich
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2022-05-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 111984892X

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Supercharge your impact on global issues and drive transformative change in the world around you Impact the World: Live Your Values and Drive Change As a Citizen Statesperson is your motivational guide to becoming a superpowered individual committed to improving your community—and the world—through your values and actions. You’ll discover why the intersection of a renewed civic spirit and new technologies empowering individuals at the local level equates to an unprecedented opportunity to channel global impact. From poverty and homelessness to violence and corruption, we often see challenges in the world around us and ask, “Why doesn’t someone do something?” We look to people with more experience, or people with more influence, or people with more time or resources than ourselves to step up and find answers to some of our biggest problems. But what if we didn’t wait for others? What if we stepped up, and looked for ways to employ our skills to solve the biggest and most complex problems of our time? That’s what leaders do. That’s what citizen statespeople do. This book is a call to action. From local to global, from the private sector to government, and to the frontlines of social entrepreneurship, authors Carrie Rich and Dean Fealk explore the benefits and challenges of becoming a citizen statesperson, showing how to pull together disparate threads to solve pressing social, political, and economic challenges. You’ll also discover: ● The lifecycle of a citizen statesperson, including an enlightening discussion of how to build your personal brand ● Inspiring case studies of real-life citizen statespeople around the world ● Explorations of the new technologies that can be used to accelerate the impact of a citizen statesperson on the world Simultaneously optimistic, inspiring, intensely practical, and engaging, Impact the World will earn a valued place in the libraries of civic leaders, activists, social justice advocates, business executives, politicians, volunteers, public servants, and anyone else looking for a way to magnify their influence and impact in any area that matters to them.

Citizen Science

Citizen Science
Author: Caren Cooper
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2016-12-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1468314149

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True stories of everyday volunteers participating in scientific research that “may well prompt readers to join the growing community” (Booklist). Think you need a degree in science to contribute to important scientific discoveries? Think again. All around the world, in fields ranging from meteorology to ornithology to public health, millions of everyday people are choosing to participate in the scientific process. Working in cooperation with scientists in pursuit of information, innovation, and discovery, these volunteers are following protocols, collecting and reviewing data, and sharing their observations. They’re our neighbors, in-laws, and coworkers. Their story, along with the story of the social good that can result from citizen science, has largely been untold, until now. Citizen scientists are challenging old notions about who can conduct research, where knowledge can be acquired, and even how solutions to some of our biggest societal problems might emerge. In telling their story, Caren Cooper just might inspire you to rethink your own assumptions about the role that individuals can play in gaining scientific understanding—and putting that understanding to use as a steward of our world. “Engaging.” —Library Journal (starred review)

Citizen

Citizen
Author: Claudia Rankine
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2014-10-07
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1555973485

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* Finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry * * Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry * Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism * Winner of the NAACP Image Award * Winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize * Winner of the PEN Open Book Award * ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Boston Globe, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, NPR. Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, Slate, Time Out New York, Vulture, Refinery 29, and many more . . . A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking book Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV-everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named "post-race" society.

What Can a Citizen Do?

What Can a Citizen Do?
Author: Dave Eggers
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2018-09-11
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1452176337

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"Obligatory reading for future informed citizens." —The New York Times "[This] charming book provides examples and sends the message that citizens aren't born but are made by actions taken to help others and the world they live in." –The Washington Post Empowering and timeless, What Can a Citizen Do? is the latest collaboration from the acclaimed duo behind the bestselling Her Right Foot: Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris. This is a book for today's youngest readers about what it means to be a citizen. This is a book about what citizenship—good citizenship—means to you, and to us all.

Citizen Development

Citizen Development
Author: Project Management Institute
Publisher: Project Management Institute
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2021-01-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1628256729

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Citizen development allows anyone to build applications without software expertise, significantly faster, and at a fraction of the cost. Unlock the value within your organization. Learn the tools and techniques needed to introduce and scale citizen development. This book brings together the latest thinking on citizen development from industry thought leaders, no-code/low-code vendors, transformation experts, and executives who oversee large technology investments. It guides organizations to deliver citizen development projects, design better apps, scale the operating model, align key stakeholders, and nurture and grow citizen development.

Soul of a Citizen

Soul of a Citizen
Author: Paul Rogat Loeb
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 391
Release: 1999-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0312204353

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Questions for Reading Groups

Becoming Citizens in a Changing World

Becoming Citizens in a Changing World
Author: Wolfram Schulz
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9783319739625

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This open access book presents the results from the second cycle of the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2016). Using data from 24 countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America, the study investigates the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in a range of countries in the second decade of the 21st century. It also responds to the enduring and emerging challenges of educating young people in a world where contexts of democracy and civic participation continue to change. New developments of this kind include the increase in the use of social media by young people as a tool for civic engagement, growing concerns about global threats and sustainable development, as well as the role of schools in fostering peaceful ways of interaction between young people. Besides enabling the evaluation of a wide range of aspects of civic and citizenship education, including those related to recent developments in a number of countries, the inclusion of test and questionnaire material from the first cycle of the study in 2009 allows the results from ICCS 2016 to be used to examine changes in civic knowledge, attitudes and engagement over seven years.