Civic Engagement

Civic engagement consists of the expression of ideas, interests, feelings, knowledge, opinions, and attitudes toward the life of a given civic community. This can be articulated in different forms that can be of an individual [Page 91]or a collective nature. This entry provides insights into the different issues concerned with the definition of civic engagement and also the controversies surrounding its usage for conducting empirical research. It provides some examples of the implications of civic engagement as well as an overview of the ambiguities that are emerging regarding its usage in the current literature and also in policy practice. It also compares some indicators for measuring civic engagement with indicators traditionally used to measure cognate concepts, such as political engagement, civic participation, and political participation.