You Don't Know Where You're Going Until You're on the Way There: Why Public "Work" Matters

This article addresses the health of American democracy and the role young people play in reimagining citizenship for the twenty-first century. Despite the abundance of community service, volunteerism, and service learning programs at educational institutions across the U.S., the author argues that a new approach is required to move beyond the political and cultural barriers we face. The practice of "public work" is offered as a way forward through a consumer culture paralyzed by hopes of outside "fixes" and "expert-driven" solutions. The power of public work is based on its embrace of narrative identity and people's ability to see politics not as a fight over limited resources, but as a way for citizens with diverse interests to build a common society together, and through this process call educators back to the historical roots of service learning.