By: Harry Boyte and Jen Nelson

What do 21st century freedom movements look like?

There are still tyrannies where oppressors have a face and name. But the more difficult freedom struggles of our time may be those involving patterns of control animated by good intentions, clothed in the garb...

This year, President Obama twice made eloquent calls for a sense of common citizenship. "You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country's course," he argued in his Inaugural Address on January 21. In the State of the Union Obama again struck the same chord. "It remains...

By Harry C. Boyte and Marie Strӧm

The recent announcement that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have passed the long-feared milestone of 400 parts per million creates a new sense of urgency about what is to be done.

In the face of the climate crisis, many...

Today the language of "service" and "love" often cloaks other purposes. After 9/11 George Bush contrasted "a nation awakened to service and citizenship and compassion" with the axis of evil. "We value life," he declared. "The terrorists ruthlessly destroy it." He called on Americans to "become September 11th volunteers by...

In the late 1950s, sociologist C. Wright Mills challenged the tendency of writers and other professionals to substitute whining and criticizing for action. He issued a call for what can be called "cultural organizing." "The writers among us bemoan the triviality of the mass media," wrote Mills. "But why do...

President Obama's State of the Union, on February 12, challenged the country to think big. "As Americans, we all share the same proud title," Obama said. "We are citizens." Higher education can build foundations for the idea -- and the politics -- of citizenship, if we recognize that the fate...

In a coincidence of history, President Obama took the oath of office on the Martin Luther King Holiday, January 21, 2013. He sounded a call for collective action, with his hand on Martin Luther King's bible.

Like King a half century ago in his "I Have a Dream" speech,...

One key to "integrating the three C's" -- college, career and citizenship -- is recalling those who kept alive traditions of work-centered education and civic learning. Lois Olson, an active participant and leader in Internships and Cooperative Education with strong citizenship interests, is a case in point.

In future blogs I will describe stories that "integrate the three C's" -- college, career, and citizenship -- as I recently proposed. But it's useful to begin by describing some of the blinders.

The western intellectual tradition conceives of public life as democratization of aristocratic leisure, contrasting civic...

On November 27, in the midst of arguments about taxes and the debt, another debate took place in Washington. This one involved two political traditions eclipsed in recent years, now stirring again to life: civil society conservatism and progressively-inclined populism, which animated the New Deal, the black freedom movement, and...

In the anniversary year of the Morrill Act which created land grant colleges, signed by President Lincoln 150 years ago, it is worth looking at what this tradition might mean for the 21st century.

Land grant colleges once promoted citizenship throughout the curriculum that combined "practical studies" and "liberal arts."...

In his victory speech, President Obama said, "Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual." He declared his intention to work with leaders from both parties "to meet the challenges we can only solve together." These were eloquent words. But to make much progress will take all...

In the view of many, attack ads and internet tools that inflame voter passions have replaced problem-solving and removed the human element in politics. But here and there, examples of "a different kind of politics" based on building public relationships push back against polarizing politics.

Though support...

At a level deeper than policies and prescriptions, elections are contests about different collective narratives -- the story that each candidate is telling us about the future. These involve not only the candidate and what he or she will do but what the rest of us do as well.

An old story has new relevance.

Two bricklayers are asked what they are doing. One says, "Building a wall." The other says, "Building a cathedral."

Mitt Romney has been attacking the Obama's campaign defense of Sesame Street's Big Bird as "small thinking" in the face of the nation's...

What happens when colleges become "part of" communities, not simply "partners with" communities, overcoming the culture of detachment that took hold in higher education after World War II, described by Thomas Ehrlich, a pioneer of civic engagement?

Such a shift means colleges and universities act as anchoring...

Looking beyond the election in November, what kind of politics is needed for democratizing change?

I am convinced that "populism," understood as a politics that builds citizen power to shape our collective destiny, with little known roots in freedom struggles and democratic movements of recent decades, offers a way...

In his acceptance speech on September 6, Barack Obama raised a theme that may have surprised some and pleased others: "We also believe in something called citizenship, a word at the very heart of our founding," he declared.

Supporters tend to see the president's citizenship too narrowly,...

In the Republican convention last week, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice struck a discordant note. As New York Times columnist David Brooks put it, "She put less emphasis on commerce and more on citizenship...The powerful words in her speech were not 'I' and 'me' [but] 'we' and us' -...

Against the background of banners proclaiming "We Built It!," speaker after speaker at the Republican convention blasted President Obama for substituting government for the agency of the people. Referring to a comment Obama made at a rally in Virginia about roads and bridges, "You didn't build that. Somebody else made...