The Rhetorician as an Agent of Social Change

Reviewed by: Civic Engagement in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices Jennifer Gilbride-Brown Civic Engagement in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices. Barbara Jacoby and Associates. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass Publishing, 2009, 265 pages, $40.00 (hardcover) Ambiguity abounds when conceptualizing the term, “civic engagement.” Higher education finds itself in a moment where parameters and definitions are needed in order to move its civic initiatives forward. Institutions are asking the question, “What do we mean by civic engagement?” The latest book from Barbara Jacoby and Associates, Civic Engagement in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices, offers a response and provides insight into what educating students for civic engagement might entail. Jacoby (2009) argues: If civic engagement is to gain real traction in today’s higher education, it must be clearly defined, and civic learning outcomes must be established. Opportunities to learn about and practice civic engagement must be embedded throughout the curriculum and the co-curriculum. This book shows how all this can be done, and is being done, at higher education institutions around the country. (p. 2) Drawing from expertise around the country, the contributing authors in this book offer a wide range of perspectives and examples while drawing from the rich base of research upon which civic engagement work can and must rest. The intended audience is broad and ranges from entry and midlevel professionals on the forefront of civic engagement initiatives to assistant/associate deans/directors who supervise them. This book has clear implications for policymakers, foundations, and associations. Fundamentally, this is a book for anyone who is charged with enacting the civic mission of higher education and is an important resource for determining what might be accomplished. This edited book is divided into two sections. The first section provides a structure for conceptualizing civic engagement grounded in its historical context and includes an exploration of the dimensions of civic learning. The second section investigates a wide range of civic engagement initiatives, both curricular and co-curricular, happening across the country in diverse institutional contexts. The book flows like a conversation among the authors with many of the contributors referring to the important conceptual and historical mapping offered in the opening chapters. In the introductory chapter, Barbara Jacoby takes on the challenge at hand, getting one’s mind around what is civic engagement and what do we mean by “educating students for civic engagement.” In many ways, the work of civic engagement has pushed ahead with fragmented and loose understandings of what it is in the first place. She cites a review of research done by Lester and Salle (2006) that listed thirty-three recent studies on service-learning of which only three included any definition of civic engagement. Drawing heavily from the work of CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement) and the Coalition for Civic Engagement and Leadership at the University of Maryland-College Park (2005), Jacoby [End Page 567] defines civic engagement as: acting upon a sense of responsibility to one’s communities. This includes a wide range of activities, including developing civic sensitivity, participating in building civic society, and benefiting the common good . . . Through civic engagement, individuals-as citizens of their communities, their nations, and the world-are empowered as agents of positive social change for a more democratic world. (p. 9) She concludes with a thorough overview of leadership in this area that can easily double as a quick reference guide to the many higher education associations and initiatives working to drive civic engagement today. This opening chapter lays important groundwork and captures the current state of affairs in civic engagement across the country. The first section also contains a chapter reviewing civic engagement research over the last 10 years written by Mark Hugo Lopez and Abby Kiesa, both of whom provide leadership on research through CIRCLE. Caryn McTighe Musil of AAC&U completes this opening section by offering a creative and useful conceptualization of what we mean by “educating students for personal and social responsibility.” The second section builds from these definitions and frameworks by examining current practices that shed light on strategies and pitfalls of integrating civic engagement across an institution. Other movements in higher education such as...

This study aims to analyze the strategic role of housewives in social empowerment through the lens of Marxist feminism. In a social system dominated by patriarchal norms, housewives are often positioned as domestic actors without formal recognition of their contributions to the capitalist economic structure. However, they play multifaceted roles in supporting family economic sustainability and social reproduction. This study employs a qualitative approach with a case study design, involving in-depth interviews, and observations, of housewives in Medan City who are engaged in community activities and home-based micro-enterprises. The findings reveal that housewives contribute to social reproduction through domestic labor and active community participation. Activities such as skill training and self-employment not only enhance family welfare but also foster social solidarity. However, their roles are often constrained by structural barriers, such as gender stereotypes and patriarchal dominance in decision-making. This study concludes that housewives hold significant potential as agents of social change, which can be maximized through interventions supporting their participation in public spheres

This article examined the effects of digital media on radio's role in public discourse and civic engagement in South Africa. The study combined a review of existing literature with empirical research using in-depth interviews with 10 participants that included radio producers and listeners from radio stations that have Zulu as their broadcast language (five radio producers from Ukhozi FM and Gagasi FM and five listeners from Durban, South Africa). Two key questions were asked: (1) How has the growth of digital media affected radio's traditional role as the most popular platform for public discussion and civic engagement in South Africa? and (2) How do audiences engage with radio programming that utilises digital media during its discussion programmes, and what factors influence their preferences for one platform over another regarding accessing public discourse and civic engagement? The article argues that while radio remains a dominant platform for public discourse and civic engagement in South Africa, its role has been transformed by the rise of digital media. These platforms have allowed for more civic engagement opportunities and expanded the scope and accessibility of public discourse in a country where such opportunities were once restricted. The study's findings have important implications for radio broadcasters, policymakers, and scholars seeking to understand the changing dynamics of the public sphere in the digital age. Overall, this study highlights the importance of considering the impact of digital media on traditional media platforms such as radio, especially in countries undergoing significant political and social change.

In this introduction, we have asked a very classical sociological question and brought together interdisciplinary efforts to critically approach it, focusing on a basic issue: food. We briefly reconstruct the main approaches to social change in sociological theory and then identify main themes with which food studies have contributed to this debate. If, to avoid normative and formal approaches, theories of change require contextualization in order to keep their explanatory value, this volume brings historical and geographical context to provide an analysis of social change through the lenses of food. Methodologically, articles offer diverse approaches to food, allowing different kinds of perspectives on change. While statistical analysis or historically comparative sociology will provide correlational snapshots and structural transformations, ethnographies necessarily deal with change happening in the everyday. The articles in this monograph have been organized into four broad groups: (1) national cuisines as elite projects of social change; (2) science and technology as contested tools for social change; (3) social mobilization and food movements as agents of social change; and (4) micro- and macro-level change and beyond: culinary subjectivities, embodied social change and food transition.

В статье предпринята попытка историко-теоретической реконструкции понятия "гражданское общество". Гражданское общество является необходимым стимулом развития и процветания государства. Выделены факторы, которые способствуют развитию гражданского общества. Гражданское общество максимально раскрывает свой потенциал в плюралистическом, либерально-демократическом обществе. Степень развития гражданского общества зависит от социально-политических институтов, в которых оно развивается.

Communication professionals are often associated with the organization’s responses to developments in the environment (reactionist’s approach), but most of the CSR and sustainability initiatives in an organization are due to the active role and personal leadership (proactive and leadership approach) of communication professionals. The pandemic highlighted the importance of the performance of communication professionals: if in the past communication professionals were able to communicate face-to-face through various communication tools and encourage stakeholders to engage in various organizational activities, the changed conditions not only forced to search for new forms of communication building and strengthening relationships with stakeholders in the “new reality” applying a hybrid mode for interactions and communication, but also to review the organization’s activities, strengthen the motivation of individual stakeholders, and encourage them to stay engaged with the organization. In the chapter, the model of one- and two-way communication processes is applied for the analysis of CSR/sustainability communication strategy and the role of communication professionals in proposing and implementing CSR/sustainability activities in organizations, through initiation, motivation, and call to action, especially during crisis or in the situations with high level of uncertainty. The choice of such an approach for analysis of CSR/sustainability activities within the organization, which indicates the respective role of communication professionals in them, allows us to evaluate the activities of communication and sustainability of the organization, highlighting the role and personal and proposed globally initiatives taken by communication professionals as social change agents. The chapter analyzes the role of communication professionals as social change agents in times of crisis to achieve an organization’s CSR/sustainability goals in collaboration with various stakeholders. In the chapter, statements on the role of communication professionals are reinforced with the results of qualitative in-depth interviews with top communication professionals working in corporations nominated for CSR and sustainability awards in Lithuania, supported with the content analysis of activity reports of those corporations for 2019–2020. Communication professionals, driven by the organization’s values, take on the role of social change and CSR/sustainability “ambassadors” in the pursuit of the organization’s corporate strategy, promoting and sharing sustainability ideas and encouraging responsible actions by organizations and external stakeholders. The actions of communication professionals are related to integrating the relevant values into the organization’s activities and communication, promoting CSR/sustainability initiatives, motivating the launching of activities, and engaging actively in the implementation of CSR/sustainability activities. The role of communication professionals in CSR/sustainability can be seen in the context of the organization’s system and culture for initiating and implementing CSR/sustainability activities but is also determined by the communication professional’s personal leadership and individual engagement in initiating sustainability activities, finding CSR/sustainability solutions, and implementing activities involving different stakeholders in the organization to create an added value for the organization and make social impact in the areas of CSR/sustainability chosen by the organization.

The interest in national youth organizations in Third World countries is one aspect of the inquiry into nonformal education as an agent of social change. This inquiry is due to the mounting criticism of formal schooling in the Third World. While the school systems of various Third World countries have often been criticized for being too selective, rigidly structured, and meritocratic, programs of nonformal education have been praised for their flexibility, their nonelitist approach, and their responsiveness to clientele needs.' Nonformal education is consequently viewed as a potential agent of social change. National youth organizations are an important segment of the nonformal framework of education in many countries, especially in Africa and in Latin America. Such organizations are backed by the state and are officially aimed at a greater involvement of youth in national development. They therefore emphasize the inculcation of modern values and norms of behavior and the actual involvement of youth in various development projects. Participation in these youth organizations is voluntary, and the members are either high school students or out-of-school adolescents. National youth organizations thus serve either as a substitute or as a mere extention of the formal school. Though their total membership frequently consists of no more than a couple of thousand adolescents, their backing by the state makes them one of the largest and most effective agencies for nonformal socialization of youth in the Third World.2 The effectiveness of nonformal education as an agent of social change has recently been reexamined. La Belle, and La Belle and Verhine3 have argued that most programs of nonformal education in Latin America are characterized by a narrow psychological approach. These programs emphasize the teaching of new values and norms, and thus regard individual change as their ultimate goal. But since nonformal programs provide no formal accreditation which is redeemable in the labor market, they have no

To illustrate the role of organizations of lawyers in social changes we analyze the process of transforming legal and socio-political institutions in Russia over the past 30 years. We combine the theory of legal mobilization with the concept of violence and social orders proposed by North, Wallis and Weingast to describe the general logic of this process. Russian case shows that exogenous shocks stimulate collective action of criminal defence lawyers which, in turn, compel the government to respond. The state can promote the passivity of the legal community and stop legal mobilization by providing certain preferences for the profession. Even though in the 2000s, Russia took the path of destroying legal institutions, legal profession in certain circumstances could again act as an agent of social change. We conclude that the efficiency of collective action depends on the institutional capacity of legal association and on the position of the professional elite standing at its head.

“Liberation theology … AS not only a theology of or about liberation: it is primarily and ultimately a theology for liberation.” In the Philippine context the author calls for the creation of a new man — homo serviens: Man who serves, in place of homo consumens: Man the consumer. To achieve this, man himself must become an agent of social change. The Catholic Church has a vital role to play in helping to bring about this revolutionary but "non-violent" social change.

Between Paradigm Shift Judaism and Neo-Hasidism

The recent revival of interest in Scottish Romanticism has returned to the question of the particularities of national public spheres in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and to the role of religion in the construction of these public spheres. The issues are certainly pressing. Throughout the period, religious themes were generally more important to Scottish writers than they were to their English contemporaries, and Scottish religion functioned and was structured in ways quite distinct from the varieties of English religiosity with which historians and especially literary critics are often most familiar. Recent work on religion and Scottish Romanticism has drawn attention to these contexts and to the complex series of relationships between religion and writing in the period. This work has initiated a reconsideration of religion’s role and effect on literary writing. There are critical benefits to be gained from this kind of effort, as has been illustrated in scholarship on Hazlitt, for example, which has demonstrated the value

Practicing Democracy: Popular Politics in the United States from the Constitution to the Civil War. Edited by Daniel Peart and Adam I. P. Smith. (Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2015. Pp. [viii], 296. $49.50, ISBN 978-0-8139-3770-0.) The ten (all male) authors in this volume met at conference at University College London in 2011 to reexamine well-worn questions of political engagement, development, and democratization in the first seventy-two years of U.S. history. Taken together, the essays they produced show early American political history to be vibrant field, capable of providing fresh insights. Editors Daniel Peart and Adam I. P. Smith set an ambitious agenda for the volume, to chart the among citizens, parties, and governance in the period by building on insights from political science, from the political history of the 1960s and 1970s, and from the new, new political history of the 1990s and early 2000s (p. 11). The essays revise ideas about foundational issues: the relationship between Jeffersonian and Jacksonian politics; the push-pull relationship between political parties and voter turnout; and the interaction between parties, those in government power, and broader public. The essays in Part 1 focus on political development, even while sometimes resisting stable model of developing systems. Douglas Bradburn uses the concept of path dependence to examine the origins of two-party conflict in the early republic. Reeve Huston reexamines Ronald P. Formisano's The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s-1840s (New York, 1983) in light of more recent work that shows high activity in the 1790s to argue that the true origin of parties should be located in that decade, rather than in the Jacksonian period, even as state and local politics reveal an uneven pattern of democratization. Huston contends that Martin Van Buren may have invented discipline, but he did not innovate in most other functions. John L. Brooke's excellent essay follows up on his widely influential work on the public sphere by examining the early 1850s as a liminal, revolutionary rupture that hurried the onset of the Civil War as transformative event-clusters ... [reshaped] foundational myths and challenged social, political, and cultural structures (pp. 74, 75). He argues, in part, that the Civil War was hastened when party managers lost their power to control events because of cultural factors such as the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) (p. 77). The essays in Part 2 add nuance to the wearing-thin battle over whether voter turnout was high or low in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. …

In this article, I will take up the idea of “origins” as it pertains to Finnish Shakespeare during Finland’s time as an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia from 1809-1917. While not technically the beginning of Shakespearean performances, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are the beginning of the rhetorical use of Shakespeare in public discourse used to establish cultural sovereignty distinct from Sweden and Russia. Beginning with a brief overview of Shakespearean mentions in the latter half of the eighteenth century, I will analyse the public discourse found in Finnish literary journals and newspaper articles in the 1810’s and 20’s. Following an analysis of J. F. Lagervall’s 1834 Ruunulinna, I will then briefly track how shifting attitudes towards translations such as those found in J. V. Snellman’s writings influenced the emerging Finnish literary and theatre tradition, most notably with Kaarlo Slöör and Paavo Cajendar’s Shakespeare translations and the establishment of the Finnish Theatre in 1871. Finally, an analysis of Juhani Aho’s untranslated essay in Gollancz’ 1916 A Book of Homage to Shakespeare will highlight the legacy of prior Finnish Shakespearean traditions, while also highlighting the limits of translation. Ultimately, I suggest that Shakespeare was appropriated early on as an accessible figure of resistance in the face of Swedish linguistic supremacy and the increasing threat of Russian assimilation and oppression.

In view of the permanent crisis of the social situation in our country, the question of agents of social change acting in these crisis moments is actualized. Two variants of scientific problematization of this issue are proposed. The first is on the platform of the theoretical vision of social change, proposed by P. Sztompka, which provides a descriptive and ascertaining study of the movements, leaders, ideas and revolutions which change our society. The second option addresses the dilemma of agents and structure, which has been debated for many years in the search for a compromise between micro- and macro-deterministic models of social change. It is emphasized that the terms social transformation, transition, and crisis are not identical; namely, the crisis is characterized by unpredictable consequences of social changes. The search for theoretical micro-macro-compromise for the situation of social crisis is suggested to be searched within the paradigm combination — the paradigm of complexity, the paradigm of practices and network theory. Social changes are specified by a change in the institutional order, which is analytically divided into formal (organizational) and informal (self- organizational) constituents. Тhe difference between the manifestations of agency within these institutional constituents is emphasized. The conceptual series and outline of a possible conceptual scheme of the study of the problem are proposed.

Bedouin special-education teachers as agents of social change