Browsing by Subject "Civic engagement"
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Item Open Access Budget Civic Engagement in the City of Durham(2018-04-20) Burgess, MichelleHow can the City of Durham’s Budget and Management Services Department improve civic engagement in the budget development process? What opportunities exist to coordinate budget engagement with the city’s other civic engagement efforts? This paper explores these questions through an overview of Durham’s budget engagement, a case study of the pilot Community Conversations, and mapping of city wide communication channels and engagement efforts. Interviews with city staff as well as with community organizations provide the bulk of the information for this analysis.Item Open Access Civic engagement among orphans and non-orphans in five low- and middle-income countries.(Global Health, 2016-10-11) Gray, Christine L; Pence, Brian W; Messer, Lynne C; Ostermann, Jan; Whetten, Rachel A; Thielman, Nathan M; O'Donnell, Karen; Whetten, KathrynBACKGROUND: Communities and nations seeking to foster social responsibility in their youth are interested in understanding factors that predict and promote youth involvement in public activities. Orphans and separated children (OSC) are a vulnerable population whose numbers are increasing, particularly in resource-poor settings. Understanding whether and how OSC are engaged in civic activities is important for community and world leaders who need to provide care for OSC and ensure their involvement in sustainable development. METHODS: The Positive Outcomes for Orphans study (POFO) is a multi-country, longitudinal cohort study of OSC randomly sampled from institution-based care and from family-based care, and of non-OSC sampled from the same study regions. Participants represent six sites in five low-and middle-income countries. We examined civic engagement activities and government trust among subjects > =16 years old at 90-month follow-up (approximately 7.5 years after baseline). We calculated prevalences and estimated the association between key demographic variables and prevalence of regular volunteer work using multivariable Poisson regression, with sampling weights to accounting for the complex sampling design. RESULTS: Among the 1,281 POFO participants > =16 who were assessed at 90-month follow-up, 45 % participated in regular community service or volunteer work; two-thirds of those volunteers did so on a strictly voluntary basis. While government trust was fairly high, at approximately 70 % for each level of government, participation in voting was only 15 % among those who were > =18 years old. We did not observe significant associations between demographic characteristics and regular volunteer work, with the exception of large variation by study site. CONCLUSION: As the world's leaders grapple with the many competing demands of global health, economic security, and governmental stability, the participation of today's youth in community and governance is essential for sustainability. This study provides a first step in understanding the degree to which OSC from different care settings across multiple low- and middle-income countries are engaged in their communities.Item Open Access DukeEngage and the Politics of "Help": Millennials, Civic Engagement, and the Problem of "Saving the World"(2009-04-27T16:58:55Z) Choi, KathyThe summer of 2008 signaled the inauguration of DukeEngage, the highly anticipated civic engagement program for undergraduates at Duke University. DukeEngage provides funding for undergraduates who wish to pursue an intensive civic engagement project for 8-weeks in the summer, and the program’s kickoff transplanted 365 enthusiastic Duke students into virtually every corner of the globe for an immersive service experience. The proliferation of programs such as DukeEngage is just one example of a wider, more recent trend that expands not only to peer academic institutions but throughout greater society. Philanthropies, public policy institutions, humanitarian groups, non-profit organizations, politicians, teachers, even businessmen and idealists alike have adopted the mantra of “doing good”, and have reorganized their mission and vision statements accordingly – perhaps without much consideration of the idea’s complex teology and ultimate consequences. The idea of “Saving the World” is a loaded concept that cannot be separated from the complicated and profound ways in which it has been co-opted, transformed, and redefined for each new generation. In this project I hope to explore the complex ways in which Duke students - as Millennial participants in DukeEngage - imagine and live out their beliefs in the value civic engagement and buy into the compelling notion of “Saving the World”. Why is civic engagement viewed as an agent of change? From where do the assumptions of intervention as “good” emerge? What motivates these Millennial do-gooders? Ultimately, I hope to better understand how participation in DukeEngage, as well as the program itself, is a generationally specific moment that presents its fair share of problems and contradictions – as well as new possibilities. It is my hope that a better understanding of this moment will translate into the “bigger picture” – how will Millennials envision their role in greater society, and what is their relation to ideas of democracy? What will this mean for the future of the United States? Will the world with DukeEngage be a better world than one without?Item Open Access Good Works – Changing (with) Civic Engagement at Duke University(2010-05-06T13:03:01Z) Aunon, FrancesItem Open Access Knowledge in the Service of Whose Society? The Ethics and Social Responsibility of Higher Education Institutions within the Realms of Civic Engagement and Labor Policies(2010-05-07T11:38:40Z) Marshall, Shadee'In this thesis I explore the ways in which social responsibility and ethics are defined within institutions of higher education. I question whether the ethics that universities portray through their civic engagement endeavors correlate with the ethics displayed by their labor policies. My field site is located at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. My method for collecting data involved interviewing students, faculty, general employees, and administrators from the campus. I draw on Karl Marx’s theories of labor division and capitalism to examine the social framework of labor at Duke. Furthermore, I analyze the ethical environment of Duke through the lens of Emile Durkheim and critique the presumed collective consciousness of the university. Through my research, I discovered that while the university deploys students into the world with the hopes of eradicating social injustices, it perpetuates these injustices within its walls. Despite their idealism, universities are not immune to issues of race, class, status and gender. Duke University is a business. As such, profit, public image, and self-sustainability often sway its moral compass. Yet, a critique of the university’s ethics is complicated. First, the term “ethical” is merely empty rhetoric. Second, universities are not just self-profiting institutions of privilege but they can also serve as a positive resource for society.