About Harry C Boyte

Harry C Boyte is founder and co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship (CDC). He is the author of Everyday Politics: Reconnecting Citizens and Public Life (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) and The Citizen Solution: How You Can Make a Difference (Minnesota Historical Society Press/Kettering Foundation Press, [forthcoming] 2008).

Articles by Harry C Boyte

Building civic agency: the public-work approach

The central problem of the 21st century is the development of civic agency. Civic agency is the capacity of human communities and groups to act cooperatively and collectively on common problems across their differences of view. It involves questions of institutional design (that is, how to constitute groups, institutions, and societies for effective and sustainable collective action) as well as individual civic skills. Civic agency can also be understood in cultural terms, as practices, habits, norms, symbols and ways of life that enhance or diminish capacities for collective action.

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Heather McRobie


Heather McRobie is a regular contributor to 50.50

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