Citizenship, Service, and Social Change

The guiding question in this course is: how do we develop citizens of a democracy who have the capacity and interest to engage in the kinds of community work needed to create and maintain healthy communities? Unpacking this question requires examining, problematizing, imagining and linking theories about: civic education, community development, complex organizations, politics, social change and democracy.

In this course, we will juxtapose theory and practice. Each student will work with others to take on a project that broadly engages students in public work. The project can be on-campus through some sort of student organization, or it can be an off-campus community-based project. The student must be taking on a leadership role in organizing the project. We will use.your experiences as a backdrop to explore the course material. By juxtaposing experiences with readings, we will learn from experience and from analysis. In this way, the process of community work and critical reflection will become mutually reinforcing and enriching.

Of particular interest to us will be the university. We will examine the university as a social institution and community actor. We will explore the internal dynamics’ of the university as a social institution that shapes our notions of citizenship and service. We will also explore the university as an actor whose patterns of actions can and do shape communities.