Youth Civic Engagement: An Institutional Turn. Circle Working Paper 45

The papers in this collection were written by an interdisciplinary group to address two main questions: What conditions deter young 'involvement in politics and civic life? What reforms could enhance youth engagement? Most of the contributors met face-to-face in Washington, DC in March 2005 to discuss their papers and the general issue of youth civic engagement. The following were some major themes in the papers and discussion: (1) An Institutional Turn; (2) Competitiveness and Controversy in Politics; (3) Individualized Risk; (4) New Organizational Forms; and (5) Immigrant and Minority Youth. The Table of Contents appears as follows: (1) Introduction, ( Peter Levine and James Youniss); (2) What Schools Should Do to Prepare Students for Democracy (William Damon); (3) A Modest Proposal ( William A. Galston); (4) Youth At-Risk for Non-Participation ( James G. Gimpel and J. Celeste Lay); (5) The Social Psychological Implications of Political Conflict (Diana C. Mutz); (6) Youth and Political Institutions (Joel Westheimer); (7) City Designs: Building Municipal Systems for Youth Civic Engagement (Carmen Sirianni); (8) The Lifeworlds of Young People and Civic Engagement (Lewis A. Friedland and Shauna Morimoto); (9) Three Points Relevant to Research on Youth Engagement (Jane Junn); (10) Reconceptualization of Political Participation and Responsibility-Taking (Dietlind Stole in collaboration with Michele Micheletti and Marc Hooghe); (11) How Structures Influence the Politics of Engagement: Some Possibilities for Research (Joseph Kahne); (12) Proposals for Sustaining the Turnout Surge (Jane Eisner); (13) Civic Engagement in Youth from Low Income Neighborhoods: The Influence of Youth Bulges, Institutions, and Poverty (Daniel Hart ); (14) Reshaping a Developmental Theory for Political-Civic Development (James Youniss); and (15) Community Colleges (Constance A. Flanagan). References, and end notes appear following individual papers. [This paper was produced by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), University of Maryland.]