Research and Publications

Civic Studies Publications

In addition, Civic Studies leaders and scholars have produced as series of books, journal articles, edited volumes, and more exploring theoretical and practical aspects of civic life. This literature contributes to the emerging intellectual framework of civic studies:

Civic Studies Volume

Civic Studies: Approaches to the Emerging Field is a volume co-edited by Peter Levine and Karol Edward Sołtan and published by Bringing Theory to Practice and the American Association of Colleges and Universities as the third volume in its Civic Series. It is available for free download (PDF) or for purchase at $10 for the volume. Contents:

• Part 1: Overview
  • “The Case for Civic Studies” by Peter Levine
  • “The Emerging Field of a New Civics” by Karol Edward Sołtan
• Part 2: The Art and Science of Association: The Indiana Workshop
  • “Artisans of the Common Life: Building a Public Science of Civics,” by Filippo Sabetti
  • “Citizenship, Political Competence, and Civic Studies: The Ostromian Perspective,” by Paul Dragos Aligica
• Part 3: Deliberative Participation
  • “Deliberative Civic Engagement: Connecting Public Voices to Public Governance,” by Tina Nabatchi and Greg Munno
  • “The Challenge of Promoting Civic Participation in Poor Countries” by Ghazala Mansuri and Vijayendra Rao
• Part 4: Public Work
  • “Transforming Higher Education in a Larger Context: The Civic Politics of Public Work,” by Harry C. Boyte and Blase Scarnatti
  • “Citizen-Centered Research for Civic Studies: Bottom Up, Problem Driven, Mixed Methods, Interdisciplinary,” by Sanford Schram
  • “Public Sociology, Civic Education, and Engaged Research,” by Philip Nyden

The Good Society Journal and its Symposium on Civic Studies

The Good Society, published by Penn State University Press, is a journal of civic studies. It is edited by two alumni of the Summer Institute of Civic Studies: Joshua A. Miller and Matt Chick.

Vol. 26, No. 2-3 (2017) of The Good Society, guest edited by Peter Levine, is a special issue on Reintegrating Facts, Values, and Strategies:

• Editor’s Note (pp. iii-iv) – Trygve Throntveit
• Guest Editor’s Introduction: On Reintegrating Facts, Values, Strategies (pp. 195-201) – Peter Levine
• Civic Competence, Self-Governance, and the New Epistocratic Paternalism: An Ostromanian Perspective (pp. 202-217) – Paul Aligica
• Working Toward Transpositional Objectivity: The Promotion of Democratic Capability for an Age of Post-Truth Politics (pp. 218-233) – Anthony DeCesare
• Cooperative Democracy and Political-Economic Development: The Civic Potential of Worker Coops (pp. 234-254) – Susan Orr and James Johnson
• Democracy as Group Discussion and Collective Action: Facts, Values, and Strategies in Canadian and American Rural Landscapes (pp. 255-273) – Timothy J. Shaffer
• Facts, Values, and Democracy Worth Wanting: Strategic Public Deliberation in the Era of Trump (pp. 274-289) – David E. Meens
• Giving Birth in the Public Square: The Political Relevance of Dialogue (pp. 290-304) – Lauren Swayne Barthold
• Exploring the Epistemological Challenges Underlying Civic Engagement by Religious Communities (pp. 305-322) – Mary E. Hess
• William James’s Psychology of Philosophizing: Intellectual Diversity, Selective Attention, and the Sentiments in Our Rationalities (pp. 323-337) – Paul J. Croce
• Forgiveness after Charleston: The Ethics of an Unlikely Act (pp. 338-353) -Larry M. Jorgensen
• Justice, Human Dignity and Human Rights (pp. 354-369) – Karol Edward Soltan

Vol. 22, No. 2, 2013, of The Good Society includes a symposium on the Summer Institute of Civic Studies. With one exception, all of the authors of the symposium articles are either teachers or alumni of the Summer Institute:

• “The Summer Institute of Civic Studies An Introduction” by Karol Sołtan and Peter Levine
• “Civic Studies: Fundamental Questions, Interdisciplinary Methods” by Alison K. Cohen, J. Ruth Dawley-Carr, Liza Pappas and Alison Staudinger
• “What Should You and I Do? Lessons for Civic Studies from Deliberative Politics in the New Deal” by Timothy J. Shaffer
• “Living Well Together: Citizenship, Education, and Moral Formation” by Elizabeth Gish and Paul Markham
• “Civic Studies: Bringing Theory to Practice” by Katherine Kravetz
• “The Civic Institute Relocated: Designing a Syllabus for Undergraduate Students at a Public University”by Susan Orr
• “Deliberation and Civic Studies” by Matt Chick

Additional articles that also summarize Civic Studies include:

• Peter Levine, “Civic Studies,” Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, Vol 32, No 1 (2014)
• Nora Schröder, "A Civic Studies Perspective on European citizens: In Search for Potential in the Conflict Surrounding TTIP,”  European Politics and Society, Aug 2017, pp. 1-26

We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For

Written by Peter Levine, Associate Dean for Research at Tisch College, We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: The Promise of Civic Renewal in America (Oxford University Press, 2013) applies civic studies to strengthening democracy in the United States. Chapter 2, “How to Think About Politics: Facts, Values, and Strategies,” argues for considering political issues from a civic studies perspective. Former United States Senator Bob Graham writes: “As America has wallowed through an unprecedented decline in civic engagement, Peter Levine has been a lighthouse warning of the dangers of civic alienation. Now, he makes the encouraging case that although we will live for a while with the consequences of past mistakes, the worst of the storm is over. Professor Levine concludes with ten common sense strategies that can energize the people and their governmental institutions while preparing a new generation of Americans with the values and competencies to sustain our reinvigorated democracy.”