Freedom House estimates that 75% of the world’s population lives in countries that experienced a democratic decline in 2020. Even in long established democracies, liberal democratic values have been shaken. As democracy requires an enlightened citizenry cultivated by a college education, many American universities and colleges adopt civic instruction and engagement as a core responsibility and mission. However, growing anti-intellectualism has drawn increased scrutiny and suspicion towards the programming, curriculum, and core values of universities. Powerful political figures regularly accuse universities of stifling conservative voices and discouraging free speech. The tension between free speech and civic dialogue requires a reframing of universities’ civic responsibility. It is no longer enough for universities to simply teach American political institutions and encourage voting. If our democracy is to move beyond today’s extreme polarization, today’s democratic citizens need civic dialogue training to be able to discuss politically contentious issues with civility, even in disagreement. This paper highlights a teaching intervention that requires students to complete constructive dialogue training and then practice new skills throughout the semester in actual dialogues on contemporary political issues. Students’ reflections on the experience highlight personal growth and understanding of their own views and moral foundations. These reflections document an increased ability to actively listen, greater respect for different viewpoints, and a growing comfort in expressing differing perspectives. Through civic dialogue training, colleges and universities can empower free speech and expression on campus and meet their civic responsibility to cultivate democratic citizens.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities and more than 70 higher education organizations have expressed their shared commitment to making civic inquiry and democratic engagement central to undergraduate education. A framework emphasizing the development of skills to address public issues through courses and practical experiences accompanied their prominent call. Yet, campuses currently are facing increases in educational gag orders and institutional policies aimed at limiting discussion of DEI topics and political protests. Although attacks on free speech would seem to conflict with efforts to prepare students for democracy, there has been little scholarly attention on what students know about free speech on their campus, their attitudes toward it, and how it affects civic and political engagement. We surveyed over 1,500 students in the Fall 2024 semester to understand their knowledge of free speech, whether they believe their rights to free speech are protected or threatened, whether they believe university administrators should be allowed to infringe on student speech, and their level of civic engagement. Findings reveal that students have moderate knowledge of free speech on campus. Further, they perceive that administrators are somewhat unlikely to violate speech rights and would oppose actions that did. We also find that students are not very active in democracy and engagement is not meaningfully related to free speech knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes. A discussion follows on the implications of our analysis and pathways for new scholarship on the relationship between free speech on campus and higher education’s civic mission.
The Indigenous cosmologies of Nigeria’s Middle Belt emphasize the relationship between human bodies and the land, transcending Western epistemological binaries and revealing profound socio-religious insights into environmental responsibility. Practices such as the burial of newborns’ umbilical cords, often dismissed as animistic or fetishistic, embody a sacred connection to the land that emphasizes belonging rather than ownership. Using an autoethnographic approach, this study critically examines these cosmologies and identifies how the sacredness of land can serve as a repository of communal memory and potential. By reframing land not as a possession but as a relational entity, this research challenges dominant narratives of land use and stewardship. It offers alternative frameworks for understanding humanity’s ecological responsibilities, proposing that Indigenous practices from Middle Belt Nigeria can inspire global approaches to environmental ethics and sustainability. In doing so, this work advances the discourse on responsibility, positioning Indigenous epistemologies as vital contributions to addressing the ecological crises of our time.
Conservation education encompasses effective pedagogical practices that enhance knowledge of the environment and foster responsible environmental actions. In addition to building an informed citizenry, conservation education is shaped by theoretical stances about the components necessary to cultivate environmental responsibility among participants and their communities. Highlighting three of our own conservation education projects in Sri Lanka as case studies, we draw from research and debates about environmental responsibility to illustrate the incorporation of environmental engagement and responsibility into these efforts, and the difficulties that arise in doing so. Sri Lanka is one of eight global biodiversity hotspots prioritized for conservation intervention. Its high endemism, alarming rates of habitat degradation, and disproportionate climate change risks as a tropical island nation make it an important site for promoting environmental responsibility. Our diverse examples demonstrate the variety of educational approaches that can be utilized to promote environmentally responsible values and, ideally, action. While our projects focus on protecting Sri Lanka’s endemic and endangered species, this is coupled with protecting their ecological environments, including from the deleterious impacts of human actions and climate change, reinforcing the role of education and community action in safeguarding these ecosystems.
This paper first examines the extent to which individuals feel responsible for addressing climate change. It next provides an overview of the factors undermining responsibility. Such factors include the efforts of the fossil fuel industry and its allies to deny climate change, the political division surrounding climate change, a range of structural and social constraints, certain features of climate change, and selected individual values and traits. The core part of the paper then asks whether the responsibility for addressing climate change will increase as the effects of climate change become more common and severe. While there is some reason to believe this will happen, it is argued that the immediate effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events, migration, and social conflict, may divert attention from addressing the root causes of climate change and reduce the ability to do so.
In the early twentieth century, popular theater in Buenos Aires appealed to a diverse audience, including immigrants, men, and women from all social classes, workers, as well as the most elite members of the oligarchy. By analyzing one work in particular, La doctora de Lantera, by Armando B. Rillo and Victor Dolard, one of the most well-attended plays of 1919, this article focuses on how theater reveals the social tensions surrounding the role of women in society during an era of dramatic change. It also shows how theater provides an outlet from which to identify, negotiate, and, at times, resolve cultural differences. La doctora is a comedy that takes its plot straight out of daily life, telling the contemporary story of Julieta Lanteri, the first woman to run for elected office in Argentina. This play showcases how women attempt to access spaces of political power, made by and for men, as well as violence perpetrated by men against women that emerged from this struggle. The play engages the audience without taking a clear stance on its topics, thereby prompting the public to contemplate these social issues for themselves. Through this analysis, the following themes emerge: 1) social control of women during an era of change; 2) language as an instrument for social class inclusion; and 3) male anxiety around shifting gender roles in public discourse. Resumen A principios del siglo XX, el teatro popular de Buenos Aires atraía a un público diverso de argentinos, incluyendo inmigrantes, hombres y mujeres de todas las clases sociales, los obreros y los miembros de la elite oligárquica. A través del análisis de una obra en particular, La doctora de Lantera, por Armando B. Rillo y Victor Dolard, una de las obras más vistas de 1919, este artículo se centra en cómo el teatro revela las tensiones sociales entorno al papel de la mujer en la sociedad durante una época de cambios dramáticos. También exhibe cómo el teatro ofrece una plataforma desde la cual se identifican, negocian y, a veces, se resuelven diferencias culturales. La doctora es una comedia cuya trama sale de la vida diaria y narra la historia contemporánea de Julieta Lanteri, la primera mujer candidata a un cargo electivo del gobierno en Argentina. Esta obra muestra cómo las mujeres intentan acceder a espacios de poder político, creados por y para hombres, así como la violencia masculina contra las mujeres que emergió de esta lucha. La obra capta la atención del público sin adoptar una postura clara sobre sus temas, invitándolo así a reflexionar sobre estás problemáticas sociales. A través de este análisis surgieron los siguientes temas: 1) el control social de las mujeres en una época de cambio; 2) el lenguaje como instrumento para la inclusión de clases sociales; y 3) la ansiedad masculina en cuanto al cambio de roles de género en la discusión pública.
The Environmental Justice (EJ) movement in the United States is comprised of diverse groups of people with a variety of environmental grievances and interests coming together to obtain equal distribution of pollution burdens across communities, reduce environmental hazards, and ensure fair enforcement of laws and policies meant to safeguard the environment for all. The 17 Principles of Environmental Justice developed in 1991 at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit remains a touchstone document today. In addition to Indigenous and Black leadership, religious communities also made the Summit possible. Religious adherents and institutions have always influenced the movement by offering material and/or non-material support. Non-material support comes in the form of moral suasion, that is, religious values put into action to promote the EJ movement. Material support includes the use of religious spaces, organization, built-in audiences, time, money, affinity groups to take direct action, and mutual aid practices of religious communities for the EJ movement. This paper features 21st century examples of moral suasion from Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity, showing how each case study relates to the EJ Principles. Religions in and of themselves are long social movements that have existential claims. While codified over time, religions remain fundamentally groups of humans who work together to promote a socio-cosmic order. The ongoing interactions of the EJ movement and religions (as social movements) matters in the quest for a livable, sustainable world where all beings to flourish in the large web of life.
