Integrating Political Activities into Pathways of Engagement

It often seems that dialogue about civic engagement or community engagement—at conferences, trainings, and in research—is framed around a narrow definition of those terms, leaving out political engagement (electoral, policy- and issue-focused, and otherwise). Because our research at CIRCLE (a part of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University) defines civic engagement broadly and is fueled by ongoing research into youth voting, we are predisposed to think about many ways that youth can or do participate. Some in the field have tried to draw more attention to political engagement through individual sessions at conferences about civic engagement in higher education. For example, I recently participated in one such session at the 2012 International Association for Research on Service-learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) conference. Additionally, our colleague, Dean of Tisch College Nancy Wilson, was a speaker at one during the 2012 Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) annual conference (Hartley, 2012). These observations prompt me to draw attention to the importance of politics in civic engagement.