Citizen politics or civic organizing, is a method for organizing and change that puts citizens at the center. This publication further explores these concepts and practices. Citizenship is continually developed over time. Citizenship requires practice. Our skills, concern, and understanding as citizens are constantly evolving and changing.
Active citizenship is practiced and developed through associations and mediating institutions.
Mediating institutions and associations are the spaces in which we do our public work and through which we govern our society. From schools to community groups to 4-H clubs, they connect individuals and communities to the larger public world. Yet these settings have largely lost their public missions and the active practice and development of citizenship as we have moved toward a service society. Reinventing citizenship takes place in the context of renewing these institutions, associations, groups, and the larger relationships which tie them together. Educating individuals alone will not alter our conceptions and practice of citizenship.