A citizen is one among the many—one among others. Citizens are members. We are always citizens “of.” “Of what?” Of the many? Yes. But citizens are not mobs or crowds. Citizens are members of civic communities, and citizens create and re-create civic communities. The civic, in other words, comes into existence when we participate in civic conversations as citizens.
In the past year, millions of people have been involved in discussions about health care reform, but have these been “civic conversations “? From shouting matches at town hall meetings, to White House summits., to hundreds of hours of television talk, to neighborhood discussions, to street demonstrations, the topic has elicited a variety of voices from different groups. For the most part, however, I think we have witnessed what one could call “social discussions” rather than “civic conversations.”
Marvin T. Brown, Ph.D teaches business and organizational ethics at the University of San Francisco and Saybrook University in San Francisco.
This book is the culmination of 30 years of teaching and writing on business and society from a communicative perspective. Visit workingethics.com for more information.
Adam Smith American Dream Atlantic trade banks biosphere citizen Citizens United civic civic conversations civic economy Civicism civic membership civilizing the economy civil war Commons corporate citizen corporations democracy disagreement economics of property economics of provision Egypt health care reform human dignity invisible hand John Locke libertarianism Libya living wage membership money moral equality ownership property property rights protection Scotland slavery Smith and slavery Smithian economics sports sustainability system of provision taxes tobacco trade