De Tocqueville Rediscovered: Community-Based Civic Engagement

Abstract

Two and a half decades into the higher education civic engagement movement, as Dan Butin indicates in the Introduction to this book, there is concern that the movement has “stalled,” partly because of imprecise and conflicting language and compartmentalized networks and a remarkably “apolitical agenda.” In the view of this author, the “movement” has not exactly stalled. Rather, it has spread widely throughout higher education. Many campuses have service and/or service-learning centers. Service-learning is widespread in many disciplines. Membership in Campus Compact has grown to nearly 1200, and there is a proliferation of other organizations addressing civic engagement on every type of campus. Civic engagement has been “institutionalized” through accrediting requirements, a Carnegie Classification option, and a federal recognition program. Most recently, AAC&U and the Global Perspectives Institute have worked with the federal Department of Education to develop a report calling for more and better civic education of college students.