This document discusses civic participation and activism. It suggests that if we want civic participation that is meaningful, impactful and scalable, we should: 1) Move beyond viewing politics and activism as separate, and instead focus on empowering individual agency. 2) Understand the different levers for change, like legislation, authority and public opinion, as well as developing new tactics. 3) Deepen people's foundations of understanding on issues while also increasing their engagement through actions like petitions, protests, and social media. 4) Recognize that thick, impactful civic participation at a large scale requires distributing control and leadership broadly throughout communities.

1. Beyond “The Crisis in Civics”
Ethan Zuckerman
MIT Center for Civic Media
(@CivicMIT, @ethanz)

2. “Lunch Scholars”
Austin Oberbillig
and Evan Ricks
Olympia High School
January 2012

3. Jay Leno
“Jaywalking”

13. cartoon by Drew Dee

15. 112th Congress
10% approval
61 bills passed
of 3914 proposed

17. 19 20 21

18. 19
image from Wikimedia Commons

19. 20
visualization by National Journal

20. 21

21. 19 20 21

22. thin
symbolic impactful
thick

23. slactivism thin
quadrant
symbolic impactful
thick

24. thin
symbolic impactful
thick

25. thin
symbolic impactful
thick

26. thin
symbolic impactful
thick
photo from WNYC.org

27. thin
small
scale
symbolic impactful
large
thick scale

28. from symbolic to impactful
5000 kyat simcard
kiirti.org campaign rynda.org
(India) (Myanmar) (Russia)

29. art from William Dwight Whitney, 1911

30. photo credit: Joel Page
lever: legislative

31. associated press
lever: authority

32. lever: public opinion

33. lever: DIY infrastructures

34. tactic: petition
theories of change: legislative, authority

35. tactic: DDoS
theories of change: authority, public opinion

36. social
petition sit-in march media celebrity ...
legislative
authority
X
public opinion
DIY

37. petition sit-in march media celebrity ...
legislative
authority
public opinion
DIY

38. I CAN HAS PROTEST?
achievable

39. testable

40. trackable

41. plausible?

42. thin thick
Interest-driven (YOUMedia Chicago)

43. thin thick
connecting change with existing passions

44. join
leadership
organize
teams
put up
posters
spread the
video
watch the
ladder of engagement
video

45. m e nt
ga ge
g en
asin
i ncre
deep
enin
g know
ledg
e

46. join
movement
work with leadership
Ugandan
question orgs
IC
learn about
LRA
watch the
ladder of engagement
video

48. small scale large scale

51. descriptive

52. Controversy
Mapper
With
Yochai
Benkler,
Hal
Roberts
and
team
evaluative

53. normative

54. if we want civic participation
that is thick, impactful and scaleable:

55. if we want civic participation
that is thick, impactful and scaleable:
get beyond politics vs. activism,
and focus on agency

56. if we want civic participation
that is thick, impactful and scaleable:
get beyond politics vs. activism,
and focus on agency
understand levers as well as
developing new tactics

57. if we want civic participation
that is thick, impactful and scaleable:
get beyond politics vs. activism,
and focus on agency
understand levers as well as
developing new tactics
deepen foundations of understanding
while climbing the ladder of engagement

58. if we want civic participation
that is thick, impactful and scaleable:
get beyond politics vs. activism,
and focus on agency
understand levers as well as
developing new tactics
deepen foundations of understanding
while climbing the ladder of engagement
understand that thick participation at
scale means devolving control

59. thanks for listening
@ethanz
ethanz@mit.edu