Civics for the 21st Century

On September 21, our director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg and former CIRCLE Director Peter Levine released a new white paper, “The Republic is (Still) at Risk — and Civics is Part of the Solution,” at the Democracy at a Crossroads National Summit in Washington, D.C.

The paper outlines some civic challenges and opportunities in the U.S., particularly as they relate to young people, and with special attention to the gaps and inequities that affect low-income youth and young people of color. It summarizes existing evidence regarding school and instructional practices which show promise in creating foundational civic skills and experiences for all youth, and it lays out several recommendations for shifting civic education practice into the 21st century.

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The Role—and Limitations—of Digital Media in Civic Deserts

As a follow-up to our previous work on civic deserts, a new analysis based on our 2016 Millennial Polls sheds some light on some of the ways digital avenues for engagement can mitigate the lack of local opportunities, where disparities remain despite access to digital resources, and what mechanisms of online engagement require further study.

Our findings suggest that online platforms and avenues for civic engagement can narrow the opportunity gap between young people who enjoy access to the physical spaces and resources of traditional civic institutions and youth who live in “civic deserts”—though, notably, it does not eliminate those gaps entirely.

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