Citizen University and the difference between Citizenship and Activism

As citizens of a community we should take care that there is always an open mind for every thought and that the main goal is to come to a living unit where every body can feel at ease.

Therefore we should look forward to different means and dare to use any device that works, helping to create a society in which we are all more conscious of how our opinions get made and hold ourselves responsible to improve the quality of the whole community. It is our responsibility as citizens to advance our causes, or to come together, in difficult and respectful melding with our fellow citizens, to decide how best to create a shared society.

 

Related articles

• Stronger Citizens, Stronger Cities: Changing Governance Through a Focus on Place (resilience.org)
  A great place is something that everybody can create.
  +
  to make a city vibrant again is to make room for more of them.+
  “The huge problem with citizenship today is that people don’t take it very seriously,” says Harry Boyte, director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College. “The two dominant frameworks for citizenship in political theory,” he explains, “are the liberal framework, where citizens are voters and consumers of goods, and the communitarian framework, where citizens are volunteers and members of communities. In other words, for most people, citizenship is doing good deeds, or it’s voting and getting things. We need to develop the idea of civic agency, where citizens are co-creators of democracy and the democratic way of life.”
• Governance Through a Focus on Place: Stronger Citizens, Stronger Cities (sustainablecitiescollective.com)
  The engagement of citizens from all walks of life is central to Place Governance, and while a great deal of Placemaking work comes from grassroots activity, we need more change agents working within existing frameworks to pull people in. As the Knight Foundation’s Soul of the Community Study has shown for several years running, “soft” aspects like social offerings, openness, and aesthetics are key to creating the attachment to place that leads to economic development and community cohesion. But counter-intuitively, civic engagement and social capital are actually the two least important factors in creating a sense of attachment.
• A Better Public Service (culturalrites.com)
  Effective public service depends upon the building of the community and how the municipal organization approaches that work. There are at least seven practical lessons that apply.

of the people, by the people, for the people

Yesterday I attended the main session of Citizen University (previously known as Guiding Lights).   I’ve never attended anything else like it — a day full of speakers on varying topics around citizenship: what it means to be a citizen, and many forms of encouragement for activism and engagement.   It was engaging, sometimes moving, and genuinely thought-provoking.

So, herewith, my thoughts:

I am in love with the duo of Mark Meckler and Joan Blades.  I had read their story before and found it inspiring and in person they did not disappoint.  It is hard to put into words, but their manner felt caring and humble.   I felt that if I were in a conversation with either of them, they might actually be interested in what I had to say.  Which of course is entirely the point of their Living Room Conversation program.

They served as a counterpoint to…

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