The term, unearthed from an earlier era in our history, has most recently been articulated by Harry Boyte and Nancy Kari in the context of work at the Center for Democracy and Citizenship of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. The citizen, in turn, is a contributor and creator of public goods, not simply an individual bearing rights nor a responsible member of a community, nor a community volunteer, although all are important roles. Citizen as producer shifts the emphasis of citizenship to the capacity for work on common projects for the public benefit. As in private experience, we feel something belongs to us when we feel we have helped to make it. Boyte and Kari point out that public work builds tangible things of general usefulness.
Public work can build capacities among individuals and institutions.
A Community's Assets. In this context, we are increasingly struck by the degree to which our own foci on enhanced learning productivity, the building of civil and civic and sustainable communities, the engagement of adults with children and of youth with their communities, all gain power and impact when seen through the lens of public work and asset building. We may be close to the bottom on voter participation. But no country in the world even approaches our participation in civic organizations of all kinds. Given the growing unresponsiveness of our political process and institutions at all levels, and the sterility of the discourse among those in politics, perhaps citizens are proving shrewder than we have thought when they tune out of politics and policy in favor of helping with problems and opportunities closer at hand.