Seminar: IT’S A NEW WORLD FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT?
Civic engagement today is in flux. New forms of civic engagement are emerging from below as a response to declining trust in institutional politics. These include both protest, attempts to create new ways of organising society, and collaborations with corporate and government actors. At the same time – paradoxically perhaps – civic engagement is increasingly promoted as a strategic resource from above, with governments calling for citizens to volunteer social services previously provided by the state and companies increasingly partnering with NGOs as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.
This seminar brings together leading scholars and practitioners to discuss the opportunities and challenges of these tendencies in relation to two themes: (1) extra-parliamentarian alliances and cross-sector partnerships and (2) the proliferation of online media platforms.
The seminar is organised by Julie Uldam and Anne Vestergaard.