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This thesis investigates the effect that a variety of demographic, educational, cognitive, and health-related variables have on civic engagement. Civic engagement is defined as a combination of frequency of volunteering and feelings of political efficacy. International survey data from 34 countries are used to provide a cross-national view of the predictors of civic engagement. We use canonical correlation analysis to investigate the widespread effects of predictor variables on both facets of civic engagement (volunteering and political efficacy) and the effects that are linked to only one facet. Furthermore, we use country-level socio-demographic data to link patterns of civic engagement of potentially marginalised groups to the representation those groups have at the community level and the political level. Our results highlight the importance of cognitive skills and skill building resources in supporting engaged citizens: literacy skill, numeracy skill, educational attainment, and number of books in the home are found to be strong predictors of civic engagement across all countries. The present thesis contributes to knowledge by employing a common measure of civic engagement across all countries, using an analysis method that allows and accounts for variance shared by multiple facets of civic engagement, and by investigating civic engagement across a wide variety of countries. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / This thesis investigates the factors that affect how involved someone is in their community or society. This involvement is known as civic engagement, which we define as a combination of levels of volunteering and political efficacy (the belief that one can affect politics). A wide variety of potential influencing factors are considered, including literacy and numeracy level, education, health level, and immigration and language background. We use data from an international survey to investigate the effects of these variables on levels of civic engagement in 34 countries. We use a statistical method that highlights how our variables of interest influence civic engagement as a whole, and how the variables specifically influence levels of volunteering or political efficacy. By analyzing the effects of the variables across diverse countries and measures of civic engagement, we shed new light on the factors that promote civic engagement around the world.

yes / It is argued that “individuals do not automatically become free and responsible citizens but must be educated for citizenship” (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 2003, cited in Leisha, 2012:55). Hence adults’ promotion of young people’s civic engagement is intended to educate young people to become active citizens. This assumes a deficit, or lack of caring by young people about issues in their country or community. However, young people’s sense of belonging and motivations to participate in civic activities are different from that of adults. This paper discusses research with young people involved in two participatory initiatives in Ghana, to examine their motivations for engaging in the projects. The study found that in addition to demonstrating that they are active citizens by engaging in the projects, the young people were also motivated by other self-interest reasons. There was however a marked gender difference in their reasons for participating in the projects. It was observed that the motivations given by the young people reflected gender stereotype of masculinity and femininity. The paper concludes that by understanding what motivates young people to engage in civic activities and other decision-making forums, participatory opportunities that emphasise young people’s interests and motivations could be created in order to sustain their participation.

Civic engagement is a fundamental component of a healthy democracy, contributing to higher government accountability and overall improvement in "good governance". Civic engagement is particularly critical to subgroups which are under-represented in formal political structures, such as women, as it affords these groups the opportunity to voice their unique concerns. However, women participate less in many important forms of civic engagement. The United Nations and other international organizations have emphasized the importance of increasing women's voice and empowerment in an attempt to improve women's overall well-being, particularly in the developing world. Individual and contextual factors have demonstrated contributions toward influencing levels of civic engagement, but these effects only serve in partially explaining why women are less engaged. This study adds to this discussion by examining gender differences in the development and contribution of social capital (measured by networks and trust) to civic engagement within two young and developing democracies; Ecuador and Peru. The study finds that gender differences exist in how social capital is formed, but these differences don't explain women's decreased likelihood for engagement. Thus, social capital can be used to build civic engagement among both genders.

This thesis compares the experiences of citizens who regularly participate in the planning and zoning processes of their respective local governments. Atlanta has had a highly structured system of neighborhood government in place for over 35 years, called Neighborhood Planning Units. Enacted by Atlanta’s first African-American Mayor, NPUs were meant to facilitate the civic engagement of all neighborhoods, regardless of socioeconomic status. The role and boundaries of NPUs are codified in the City Charter. Unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia is a large, urbanizing-but-still-suburban county north of the city. Cobb does not officially recognize community boundaries nor is there a codified neighborhood government structure in place. By comparing the two systems of governance, this thesis will examine which best facilitates participation and whether respondents feel efficacious as they engage with their local government. The findings matter because citizen participation is generally deemed a desirable and even necessary element of modern, representative democracy.

This research study provides answers to questions pertaining to current practices in the art museum field regarding socially responsive programming and the motivations for developing and implementing such programs. Socially responsive programming is programming that encourages dialogue and debate about social, economic and political issues in order to promote honesty, fairness, concern for the rights and welfare of others, empathy, and compassion (Desai & Chalmers, 2007). The study engaged a mixed methods approach by utilizing a survey and three case studies. The purpose of the survey was to gauge the position of the field in relation to their values and support of socially responsive programs. Janes’ and Conaty’s (2005) four characteristics of socially responsive museums: seeing social issues and acting to create social change (idealism); building and sustaining strong relationships with the community (intimacy); investing time for reflection and resources to fully understand social issues (depth); and judging the museum’s worth, not based on building size, prestige of collections, or attendance numbers, but on the quality programs a museum provides to the community (interconnectedness) guided the construction of the survey and served as an analytical tool for the case studies. The survey sample resulted from distributing the survey through major museum-themed listservs. The survey also aided in identifying three exemplars of socially responsive museum. These institutions, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, the Columbus Museum of Art, and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, comprised a purposeful sample in order to further investigate museum staff members’ motivations for creating and instituting socially responsive art museum practices. / text

The decline in traditional methods of civic engagement is a cause for concern in many Western democracies. Similarly, studies of American party politics point to a transformation from locally-based volunteer organizations to national ones assisting candidate-centered, professionally-run campaigns, leaving little room for volunteer participants. This thesis analyses the recent resurgence of grassroots participation and organization in the United States. Using interpretive methods, I present a study of grassroots participants in Massachusetts Democratic Party primary campaigns in 2006. Primary documents, interviews with volunteers and paid members of field staff, and observations of canvassing work all detail the personal and organizational contexts of participation, illuminating the meanings individuals found in campaign work. Grassroots participation takes place in a loosely organized set of candidate-based campaigns, local party committees, and civic spheres. When participants first engage in this environment, they become socialized into a community with learned norms, practices, and ways of knowing. While those interviewed shared some of the motivations of party activists in previous studies, the motives and beliefs described by both professional organizers and volunteers were less policy focused than expected, and blurred the distinction between ideological and social categories. Indeed, while organizers and volunteers build distinct identities through their campaign participation, they share many more similarities than the literature on activism and professionalism in parties would suggest. Participants also serve a crucial role as translators between party elites and their fellow citizens, with important implications for linkage and the problem of decoupling. Rather than a return to traditional methods and structures of political engagement, the participants observed take part in and are building communities which have much in common with new forms of non-traditional participation. These findings contribute to the development of party organization theories and point towards the need for greater dialogue between scholars of party politics, organizational studies, and civic engagement.

This project responds to the question: How do communication educators encourage students to enact the communicative practices necessary for a life of rhetorically engaged civic action? In responding to this question, the academic field of communication studies is recognized as a site for implementing the lessons of rhetoric, democracy, and civic engagement. This project contributes to the civic engagement scholarship from a communication studies perspective by foregrounding human communication as an essential component of the civic engagement process. As an interpretive inquiry, the philosophical thought and the pragmatic action of twentieth-century rhetorician and social activist Jane Addams (1860-1935) provides a hermeneutic entrance point for identifying and understanding the ways in which faculty members in higher education might conduct service-learning in a more responsive and engaged manner. <br> Practicing situated communicative service-learning, a pedagogical approach that embraces the historical moment and the challenges facing service-learning on today's college campus, provides one possibility. Addams's philosophical thought and communicative practices inform the integration of situated communicative service-learning into the communication studies field and college campus through the understanding of commonplace stemming from the Greek understanding of topoi (Aristotle). This praxis-centered approach to service-learning provides ground for students to understand the rhetorical and communicative practices necessary for a life of engaged civic action. By grounding individual communicative practices in a communication classroom setting, communicative habits can grow and flourish in communities. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD; / Dissertation;