MAIN > SPOTLIGHT ARCHIVE > Michael_Carpini (Dec 05)

Tuesday 5th December 2006 1:06 pm

Michael X. Delli Carpini’s Definitions of Key Terms

One of the difficulties in discussing the impact of digital media on civic and political engagement is a lack of clarity on what we mean by these terms. So let me suggest some simple (simplistic?) definitions…

Here they are:

  • Civil Society: Societal institutions that are not part of the official state/governmental apparatus and that structure private (e.g., family) and public (e.g., religion) life.
  • Polity: Institutions of the state/government that authoritatively allocate public goods, services and values.
  • Social Capital: Connections among individuals - social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them.
  • Civic Awareness:  Cognitive (e.g., knowledge), attitudinal (e.g., interest) and affective (e.g., concern) involvement in civil society.
  • Civic Participation:  Individual and collective actions designed to address public issues through the institutions of civil society.
  • Civic Engagement:  The combination of Civic Awareness and Civic Participation.
  • Political Awareness:  Cognitive, attitudinal and affective involvement in the polity.
  • Political Participation:  Individual and collective actions designed to address public issues through the institutions of the polity.
  • Political Engagement:  The combination of Political Awareness and Political Participation.
  • Democratic Awareness:  Cognitive, attitudinal and affective involvement in BOTH civil society and the polity.
  • Democratic Participation:  Individual and collective actions designed to address public issues through the institutions of BOTH civil society and the polity.
  • Democratic Engagement:  The combination of Democratic Awareness and Democratic Participation.

Using these terms, some questions that emerge are:

  1. Where does cyberspace fit in this schema?  Is it part of civil society? The polity?  Both? Is it its own civil society or polity with its own rules?

  2. How do various virtual activities contribute to or detract from the various forms of involvement, participation, engagement and social capital described above?

  3. Do virtual activities like playing on-line games that “model” engagement lead to “the real thing” (even if the real thing still happens on-line)? Move people away from it?  Substitute for it?

Category: Civic-Engagement

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Comments

Anne Albert
 Posted on January 18 2007 7:10 PM

I am not an academic, and just wanted to say that Michael Delli Carpini’s suggested definitions are helpful to me.  I make an effort to keep informed and to be an activist citizen, but sometimes feel left out and inadequate because I’m not a walking encyclopedia when it comes to matters of politics and public policy.  It’s nice to have this glossary as a reference point for the terminology I often encounter.

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