A Different Kind of Politics

Higher education plays a vital role in democracy by educating future generations of citizens and producing cutting-edge knowledge to advance solutions to public problems. Most higher education institutions are talking about civic engagement, yet they often mean disseminating information, providing technical assistance, or building public support for their programs. What is happening or could happen in the civic engagement movement to transform democracy? A vibrant civic movement has taken root throughout higher education, but what kind of democracy does it reflect?

To provoke conversation on these questions, A Different Kind of Politics: Readings on the Role of Higher Education in Democracy, edited by Kettering Foundation Program Officer Derek Barker and David Brown, presents Kettering Foundation research on the democratic implications of the civic engagement movement in higher education. The contributions reflect on efforts to treat students as active learners and engaged citizens, undertake new forms of professionalism that treat citizens as the primary actors in politics, and build genuinely democratic relationships with communities.

The book features a series of readings, interviews by David Brown exploring the democratic mission of higher education, and an afterword by David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation. Chapters in this volume include:

• Preface, Derek Barker
• “Reimagining the Civic Imperative of Higher Education,” Elizabeth Hollander and Matthew Hartley
• “Deliberation and the Civic Education of College Students”
• “Public Scholarship: Academic Professionals Engaged in Democratic Work”
• “Universities and Communities: The Politics of Democratic Relationships”
• “Higher Education Faculty and the Motivations of Civic Work”
• “Ships Passing in the Night?,” David Mathews