Green Book Reviews

Active citizenship: It’s not your mama’s activism. The “new activism,” also called “civic engagement” or “social activism,” is growing increasingly common in North America and around the world. By whatever name you wish to call it, active citizenship means that participation in civil society is considered the norm for all citizens. It takes a more holistic approach than older forms of activism, aiming to create systemic change rather than piecemeal reforms, and does not shy away from using the resources of the private sector. Active citizens don’t “give back” to their communities; They share the responsibility for them.

For some, active citizenship might mean founding a non-profit organization. Others may find their calling in joining Teach for America, making a midlife career change and getting into the non-profit sector, or volunteering online with a collective intelligence project. In Citizen You: How Social Entrepreneurs are Changing the World (http://www.citizenyou.org/), co-authors Jonathan Tisch and Karl Weber explore an option for every lifestyle. The book is filled with the stories of numerous active citizens, as well as practical tips, “food for thought,” and “seeds for action” to help individuals make a difference.

In an active citizens’ society, anyone can – and everyone should – be socially engaged. The varied examples offered in Citizen You do much to support this argument. Students may identify with the young woman whose volunteer work researching poverty in Guatemala inspired her to attend law school. Professionals might enjoy reading about a “citizen engineer” who takes a holistic approach to his work, transforming technical fields into opportunities for  social, economic and political reform. Business people will be interested by the corporate citizenship of Loews Hotels, which includes a Green Policy and a Minority Business Enterprise Program.

Tisch, the successful chief executive with Loews Corporation and Loews Hotels, is known for his corporate responsibility and philanthropic work (such as his creation of the Loews Hotels Good Neighbor Policy), and for his service on the Board of Trustees at Tufts University. Throughout his career, Tisch has demonstrated the possibilities of uniting for-profit business and social responsibility. In Citizen You, he and Weber describe unlikely means of merging the two.

Some say a business is only responsible for earning a profit by legal means. Yet social responsibility for businesses has its own benefits, such as good publicity and increased sales. Corporate social responsibility does not need to stop at donations to charity or “greening” the company; business acumen can also be combined with social goals. Non-profits can learn from and adapt business methods, such as when charities use metrics to measure their programs’ efficiency and impact. From the other side, divisions of for-profit organizations can contribute resources to social and civic causes.

Citizen You‘s greatest strength may also be its weakest point. As mentioned earlier, the book is packed – some might say padded – with examples. These examples easily take up as much space as their theoretical underpinnings, sometimes becoming tedious. Worse, the authors rarely reflect on them or adequately explain their significance.

Canadian and international readers may also find the book rather US-centric. The chapter dedicated to New York’s NYC Service initiative is interesting as an example of what a city can do on its own, but the chapter on government, which focuses exclusively on American government, could easily have been given a broader scope. There are occasional references to active citizenship overseas, but the vast majority of the book is about Americans’ work and would not apply to developing countries. Working within a capitalist framework is particularly taken for granted.

Citizen You illuminates and inspires with its detailed descriptions of how anyone can get involved in active citizenship. It makes a convincing argument that it is possible to both “do well” and “do good.” The face of activism is changing to reflect active citizenship; Tisch and Weber’s book provides a useful guide to what is happening and how you can get involved.

C.E. Pierre recently received a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and English from the University of Waterloo.