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NANCY KRANICH
At the turn of the twenty-first century, political scientist Robert Putnam reported that Americans were âbowling aloneââleading lives increasingly disconnected from each other and the institutions of civic life. âFor the first two-thirds of the twentieth century a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades agoâsilently, without warningâthat tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current,â Putnam wrote. âWithout at first noticing, we have been pulled apart from one another and from our communities over the last third of the century.â1
Putnam observed lower rates of voting, curtailed work with political parties and service organizations, fewer people joining civic groups, and lower attendance at community meetings and political events. A series of forums convened to examine challenges to democracy revealed that participants felt they were bystanders instead of active members of our democracyâconsumers rather than citizen proprietors. Others saw themselves as local but not national participantsâlike citizens of city-states rather than a national democracy. Forum participants also expressed concern about the loss of public space where citizens might meet informally to discuss community problems and political issues in a civil manner. In short, they saw the average citizen as unrepresented, voiceless, and homeless.2 These sentiments were corroborated by a 2019 Pew Research Center poll that found that 85 percent of Americans are more negative about political discourse in the United States, prompting further withdrawal from the public sphere.3 Moreover, Americans have lost confidence in our national institutions, as reflected in another Pew poll that found that only 18 percent of Americans trust the government in Washington to do whatâs right âjust about alwaysâ or âmost of the time,â a drastic decrease from even fifteen years ago.4
Even as people lose trust in our national government, they continue to hold high opinions of their state and local governments, feeling local government is more responsive and less partisan. A 2018 Pew poll found that 67 percent of Americans had a âveryâ or âmostlyâ favorable view of their local government, compared to just 35 percent with a favorable view of the federal government.5 Numerous other studies have shown that neighborliness and civic life are not dead but flourishing in some localesâso much so that it brings with it a sense of opportunity, possibility, and even optimism. Many Americans continue to believe that increased public engagement can rejuvenate hope and the public-mindedness that typify this nation at its best. If they are to fulfill their role as citizen proprietorsâa role that prompts them to own shared problems as âoursâ and not âtheirsââthey want a greater sense of community, safer public spaces, and increased trust.6 At a time when gaps are widening between citizens across the country, they turn to catalytic, boundary-spanning institutions in their local communities to provide a safe (and brave) place for them to exercise their democratic practices together.
One of these institutionsâthe libraryâhas a long history of this civic work or community engagementâa term that refers to the multiple ways in which we learn about, collaborate with, and support community members.7 Typical community engagement activities include facilitating community conversations, assessing community aspirations and concerns, involving community members in decision-making, partnering to advance shared goals, promoting civic literacy, convening forums for dialogue and deliberation, and engaging with diverse historic and cultural experiences of constituents. Whereas outreach focuses on extending an organizationâs reach, engagement begins with building relationships with the community. This chapter will review the history of these concepts and the ways in which libraries have embraced them and provides context for subsequent chapters that describe how such community engagement activities are shaping the future of libraries.
THE REVIVAL OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY: THE CASE FOR A STRONG DEMOCRACY
Robert Putnamâs call for the revival of American community popularized a movement that had begun in the late twentieth century. Among the early voices was that of political scientist Benjamin Barber, who prescribed âstrong democracyâ as a remedy to incivility and apathy, where âactive citizens govern themselves in the only form that is genuinely and completely democratic.â8 Barber claimed that âcitizens are neighbors bound together neither by blood nor by contract but by their common concerns and common participation in the search for common solutions to common conflicts.â9
Barberâs pioneering work on the revitalization of citizen participation in community affairs was followed by other political scientists who applied practical techniques to this active citizenship model, engaging lay citizens in deliberation about issues of common concern, and developed theories of active citizenship as well, using new models for reinvigorating communities through the creation of free spaces or commons where citizens participate in shaping the public life in their communities.10 A tidal wave of other civil society theorists has contributed to this scholarship over the past three decadesâscholars who are strong proponents of citizen participation in public life, along with a cadre of community builders who have created tools and frameworks for democratic practices that citizens can apply toward renewing their communities.11
Democracy and Citizenship
Democracy as we know it originated in ancient Greece twenty-five hundred years ago. The term is derived from the Greek words demos, or the people/citizenry, and -cracy (from kratos), or the power to rule. In Greece and Rome, governance incorporated popular participation by land-owning male citizens, empowering them to shape their future. Democracyâs origins as a political system expected citizens to work together to make life better for everyone. In modern democracies, state sovereignty is located in the people, as citizen proprietors, who are responsible for active participation in public affairs.
Our founding fathers did not mention democracy when they declared independence from Britain, but they did start the new Constitution with âWe the People,â elevating the peopleâs allegiance to each other rather than as subjects to a king. Although restricted initially to land-owning white men, but later expanded to white women and African Americans, the right to participate in federal and local affairs was extended over the centuries to include all who belong to a community. As âcitizensâ of our democracy, all of us should aspire to work together to solve common problems and produce benefits for everyone.12
No single definition of democracy as practiced in America has dominated political discourse. The founders created at the federal level a representative democracy that would delegate decisions to elected legislators; powers not enumerated in the Constitution were left to states and localities. In the nineteenth century, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, speaking of an ideal government that is of, by, and for the people. In the following century, American leaders saw democracy through different lenses. President Lyndon Johnson considered democracy to be voting, whereas President Bill Clinton saw it as governing. In contrast, President Franklin Roosevelt embraced participation as central to our democratic processes.
In the twenty-first century, attempts to reclaim a participatory democracy have focused on strategies to bridge some of the divide separating the public from our representative government as a collaborative venture of institutions working with citizens, not just for them. In a participatory democracy, authority does not descend from the top down from competing leadership but rises from the bottom up from an undivided base. This grassroots form of democracy begins at a smaller scale locally and offers citizens opportunities to become full-fledged players by examining problems and finding solutions together. In communities, citizens do the âpublic workâ of discussing concerns openly, finding common ground, and making decisions through small, informal groups like clubs, organizations, and other associations. For success, community members must develop social capitalâthe trusted bonds and bridges that connect those who are both like and unlike them. They also need civic spaces where they feel safe to make mutually beneficial choices, recognize possibilities, and cocreate solutions. Catalytic, boundary-spanning institutions can assist them by bringing them together to learn, build collective knowledge, develop partnerships, and share leadership.
Toward an Informed and Engaged Citizenry
Americaâs founding fathers proclaimed loudly and often the necessity of an informed citizenry in order to exercise their civic responsibilities wisely. This creed of the informed citizenry became a central theme in American life, a conviction that has helped articulate the relationship between citizens and self-governance since the early days of the republic. Also key to the emerging American democracy were the associations and activities that create the glue which strengthens civil society and that ensure a structure and climate for ac...
