Political Theorist Will Address
Civic Engagement
October 06, 2004
Bowling Green, Ky. - A leading political theorist will discuss civic engagement, citizenship and democracy next week in a visit to Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Harry C. Boyte's visit is part of an ongoing university effort to encourage student civic engagement, a critical component of Western's quality enhancement plan theme "Engaging Students for Success in a Global Society."
Dr. Boyte, co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University of Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, will speak at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in the Mass Media and Technology Hall Auditorium.
For 11 years, the center has focused on developing practice-based theory about how to engage citizens in public life.
Dr. Boyte has written seven books on community organizing, citizen action and citizenship, including "Building America: The Democratic Promise of Public Work" and "CommonWealth: A Return to Citizen Politics."
His most recent publication is "Everyday Politics: The Power of Public Work." In it, he wrote: "...the politics of serious democracy is the give and take, messy, everyday public work through which citizens set about dealing with the problems of our common existence. The decline of civic involvement in politics and public work in recent years means that people lose a sense of their stake in the nation. They become tourists of the age. Everyday politics of public work is the way people become citizens again: accountable players and contributors to a democratic way of life."
Dr. Boyte has served as national coordinator for the New Citizenship, a bipartisan effort to bridge the citizen-government gap, and senior adviser to the National Commission for Civic Renewal. In the 1960s, he worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a field secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
For more information, contact John Hardin at (270) 745-7009. More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
