Definition
Civic engagement is “working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community through both political and non-political processes” (Ehrlich 2000, p. vi). While not universal, countries in Europe, North America, and South America tend to hold inevitable that a thriving pluralist democratic society depends upon active participation of its citizens, characterized by informed deliberation and collaboration to address public problems and work toward common goals (Colby et al. 2007).
The origin of the term civic is derived from the Latin civicus relating to city or town and civismeaning citizen....
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Cress, C.M., Stokamer, S.T. (2017). Civic Engagement in Higher Education. In: Shin, J., Teixeira, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_359-1
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