Civic Engagement: Ships Passing in the Night?

Abstract

Marguerite Shaffer, director of American Studies at Miami University, is one of a surprisingly large number of faculty members who are at odds with an academic culture that isn't hospitable to their efforts to combine a public life with a scholarly career. The big news is that outside developers, aided by a planning grant from the state development office, are considering buying up a large tract of land just south of the town limits. According to a recent Kettering and Harwood study, nongovernmental organizations are often more interested in demonstrating the impact of their programs than in facilitating self-determination and self-rule (2009). This knowledge has to be socially constructed by citizens; it is neither better nor worse than expert, scientific knowledge, just different