What do you mean when you talk about “citizenship” and “civic culture?”
When we say “citizenship,” we mean being a contributing member of a community. We use a simple equation: “power plus character equals citizenship.” To live like a citizen requires that we practice civic power and cultivate civic character. Civic culture is the pattern of values, norms, habits, narratives, and rituals that shape how we do that — how we live together and govern ourselves in a diverse democracy. Every place has a civic culture, and it’s either healthy or unhealthy.
We focus on culture because it’s upstream of structure and policy. Do you walk past someone who is hurting or ask them what is wrong? Do you try to understand someone who is different from you? Do you think life is zero-sum and it’s every person for themselves, or do you think we’re all in it together? Those are culture questions before they are policy questions. They determine the realm of the possible in policy. The only way we’re going to be able to fix civic culture in the U.S. is through a bottom-up renewal of a sense of civic responsibility. At Citizen University, we’re creating civic rituals and learning experiences where people can be and believe together, humanize each other, talk about hard questions, and build together.
How do the Civic Collaboratories work?
Civic Collaboratories are one of our breakthrough social technologies. They are mutual-aid clubs that bring together civic innovators from across the ideological spectrum and from different sectors — veterans, immigrant rights, civic education, voting reform, arts, climate — to support each other’s work. We use a format called the Rotating Credit Club, where members take turns presenting an initiative or project they’re working on, and the rest of the group responds not with commentary or critique, but with hard commitments of help and investment of capital — financial, institutional, relational, social, reputational, and so on. It’s a ritualized process. You have to begin with the words “I commit.” No weasel words, no “Maybe I could…” or “If you’d be interested, I might be able to…” It makes a difference to say, “I commit” and it makes a difference to hear it. Then, in the best sense, what goes around comes around and we circulate our power and amplify it.
What kind of impact have the Collaboratories created so far?
We began more than twelve years ago with our National Civic Collaboratory, and that has been so fruitful that we decided to adapt and apply the format in a local, place-based way as well. Now, they’re sprouting up all over the country, in places like Chicago, Atlanta, Kentucky, Arizona, and more.
So many different projects and initiatives have sprung from the Collaboratories. One example is Made By Us, a nationwide network of museums and cultural institutions that works to ground history and civics in the places where people live. They’ve created a campaign to empower young people across the U.S. to shape the story of the country’s 250th anniversary. The project was born at the Collaboratory and, since 2020, has garnered support from institutions like the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the National Archives Foundation, the New-York Historical Society, the Atlanta History Center, and many others.
For a local example, members of the Chicago Local Collaboratory were looking for ways to counter the siloing and segregation of a city that is divided between North, South, and West Side. Those conversations led to the creation of Civic Exchange Chicago, a physical space where people and nonprofits from different neighborhoods could connect and collaborate. Though that space didn’t survive the pandemic, its DNA went into a new venture with a similar spirit called Impact House. Meanwhile, a local artist named Tonika Johnson created something called the Folded Map Project, inviting people with identical addresses, one on the North Side and one on the South, to bridge the lines on the map, meet, and build relationships.
The Civic Collaboratory format works, whether at a national scale or a local one, and I tell people to use it, to steal it! Learn from us if you want to do it our way — we will train you — but take it, adapt it, make a difference with it. Anything we can do to build this muscle of mutual aid and seed more of this kind of culture change action is a victory.
You’ve spoken often about reclaiming the joy of democracy. What led you to make that part of your approach?
Strengthening democracy shouldn’t be a finger-wagging, eat-your-vegetables thing. It should be something joyful that invites you to co-create. Jená understood that innately, and she’s the one who really imprinted it into every aspect of our work.
Jená was an incredible theatre artist and teacher, and she used those talents to expand our focus to the art of community building. She was able to effortlessly infuse a gathering with a sense of magic and ritual. Our approach to citizenship and democracy is filled with her commitment to joy, imagination in the face of pain, and understanding of the emotional undercurrents that drive people’s lives.
Jená challenged me — and all of us — to approach life with an open mind and heart and embrace improvisation. Not winging it, but starting with a shared goal and then creating the conditions where people’s genius can emerge in unpredictable ways to get us there.
What makes you hopeful about this work?
Earlier this year, we brought together 120 alumni of our programs, including civic catalysts from other countries where democracy is under strain, for a gathering we called Citizen University Homecoming. Seeing so many people practicing civic power and cross-pollinating ideas, skills, know-how, strategies, tools, and tactics for organizing gave me enough hope to last me the rest of this year, at least.
When you see a community come together in a spirit of mutual support, it’s unforgettable. I can give you an example from my time at the Bellagio Center. My residency was the first time I’d really returned to this work since Jená died. I was so fortunate to have an amazing cohort of interested, interesting, kind, open-hearted people, each of whom brought different life challenges, perspectives, and philosophies. Right at the midpoint of my residency was the first anniversary of Jená’s death. My cohort members came together and asked me what I wanted to do. We wound up in this circle that evening, where I shared more about her life. I showed them videos of her, and everyone brought gifts and offerings. That circle was one of the most moving, powerful experiences of my life, and to this day, we’re all still really tight.
Acts of connection and care create ripples. Four people from that circle — members of my cohort from South Africa and India — are now partnering with Citizen University in a global learning exchange we are doing this year, along with partners from Brazil and Poland. That’s testament to the power of the residency program – it deepens work, and it expands it.
That moment, in which people of diverse backgrounds and cultures joined together to care for a neighbor in need, perfectly represents what a healthy civic culture can achieve. To Liu, it’s a vision that everyone can support. “People are hungry not to be alone. They yearn to be part of something bigger than themselves,” Liu said. “And they want to believe that the promise of democracy is still achievable.”
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While The Rockefeller Foundation provided support to the author to create this project, the Foundation is not responsible for the project and does not recommend or endorse the contents of the article.
