If a group of friends meeting to sew or craft in a house share copyrighted patterns, there is little public concern. If the group of friends meet and discuss and share their work (and patterns created by others) online, questions of copyright infringement and fair use come into play.

As types of activity and practice move from one domain to another, we also see transformations in the relationship of political activity to social and cultural spheres.

Since online interest-driven participation similarly cultivates skill development, and in particular the skills of participatory culture which translate directly into success in participatory politics, we may expect online interest-driven participation to provide a significant developmental pathway toward participatory politics.

In this volume, Beltran describes how these young activists use social media as a “space of confrontation, creativity and self-assertion,” thereby wresting control over the immigration narrative from an older generation of activists.

Political leaders are now speaking in front of audiences where their every utterance can be captured on a cell phone camera or digital recorder and then circulated online among a much larger audience

Across the literature, the concept of participatory politics designates forms of political action that seek to advance peer-to-peer forms of organization and to evade elite dominance in politics, regardless of what the partisan affiliation is of those elites

Those who engage in agenda-setting, opinion formation, and action-taking through methods like the ones described above participate in “participatory politics.”

f sources. They also often check the veracity of information that is circulated by elite institutions, such as newspapers and political candidates.• Dialogue and feedback. There is a high degree of dialogue among community members, as well as a practice of weighing in on issues of public concern and on the decisions of civic and political leaders. This might include voicing one’s perspective at a meeting, discussing politics with others, commenting on blogs, or engaging in other digital or face-to-face efforts to interact with or provide feedback to leaders.• Circulation. In participatory politics, the flow of information is shaped by many in the broader community rather than by a small group of elites. This might include sharing information about an issue at a meeting of a religious or community organization to which one belongs or posting or forwarding links or content that have civic or political intent or impact.• Production. Members not only circulate information but also create original content (such as a blog or video that has political intent or impact) that allows them to advance their perspectives. • Mobilization. Members of a community rally others to help accomplish civic or political goals. This might include working to recruit others for a grassroots effort within one’s community, or reaching out to those in one’s social network and beyond on behalf of a political cause

Investigation. Members of a community actively pursue information about issues of public concern. Participants seek out, collect, and analyze information from a wide array

Our analysis of youth activity in a political domain that we define broadly has made visible clusters of practices that are analogues to those identified as constituting participatory culture. T

• circulate(by blogging, podcasting, or forwarding links)• collaborate (by working together with others to produce and share information via projects, such as Wikipedia)• create (by producing and exchanging media via platforms like YouTube and Flickr)• connect (through social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, or through online communities, such as game clans or fandoms)

Our understanding of the “participatory” aspect of participatory politics borrows from and is rooted in Henry Jenkins’s concept of participatory culture (Jenkins et al. 2009). In a participatory culture, participation is significantly peer-based, interactive, nonhierarchical, independent of elite-driven institutions, and social, that is, accessible to analysis at the level of the group rather than the individual.

Within the context of participatory culture, however, one might now “crowd-source” the answer with an open-ended Google search and then decide how to vet, and organize the collective knowledge of the group.

digital media appear to have made participatory cultures more common, and indeed, participatory cultures are often discussed in relation to digital practices and platforms

“politics as usual” in the future

By 2009, 80 percent of the members of Congress had set up their own YouTube channels, enabling unfiltered communication to their constituents (NPR 2009).

digital media have created new possibilities for civic and political participation

First, it acknowledges that many of the struggles to shift public attention to new issues or frames and to challenge the balance of power in public life take place outside of traditional institutions of civic and political life. S

, young people are frequently among the “every day innovators” who are appropriating digital tools to serve their communications goals, as seen in studies of teens’ texting practices.

We gather together the norms and practices that we identify as shifting the political landscape under the label “participatory politics.

(1) new technology and associated practices, facilitate networked, many-to-many, and mobile communications; (2) online networks support both structured interactions among people and more open-ended participation in a range of activities; (3) traditional barriers to cultural production and circulation are now much lower; (4) these changes are playing a pivotal role throughout the world, in developing as well as postindustrial societies, in democracies and in more autocratic regimes

Frequently, acts of participatory politics tap the public’s connection to popular culture.

Those who engage in agenda-setting, opinion formation, and action-taking through methods like the ones described above participate in “participatory politics.”

increasing access to tools supporting circulation, collaboration, creation, and connection

cholars have argued that new media may be facilitating a broad shift in the form and focus of politics.

informal and not-easily categorized actions.#For exam

Millennials’ participatory zeitgeist, political urgency, and civic media fluency.

We struggle to balance teacher- and student-guided learning.

peer-supported mentoring groups meet across campus

over 100 undergraduates participate in online debate, community-based service and research, and town hall meetings featuring issue experts and local stakeholders

or a Smartphone

blends priorities and pathways via creation of public policy across school, community, and online settings

MSC models a civic platform whereby contingent formations of media, information, and people open pathways of interest-driven priorities, reflecting and advancing the well-being of Michigan’s students

As proposals are authored, so too are they discussed and revised. Each section of a proposal—the pre-ambulatory clauses (“Whereas…”), operative clauses (“Be it resolved…”), and consultation clauses (supporting opinions from experts)—is iteratively refined until the final voting phase begins (figure 1.3).

These activities seed students’ creation of public policy in six topic areas: justice and equity, arts and culture, human development and welfare, environment and health, economic policy, and community revitalization and social entrepreneurship

survey

undocumented youth are increasingly using digital media to produce and circulate their stories of coming out as undocumented through movement art and user-generated videos and documentaries, a practice they identify as “participatory storytelling” which “allow[s] immigrant youth a means for self-de!nition and spontaneous messaging, a form of communication, which diverges from tightly controlled movement ‘framing’” (

(2) online networks support both structured interactions among people and more open-ended participation in a range of activities;

“Transitions are consequential when they are consciouslyreflected on, often struggled with, and the eventual outcome changes one’s sense ofself and social positioning

As pictured inFigure 1, “Connected civics” is a way to describe the learning that takesplace at the intersection of three realms of activity: young people’s agency within peercultures and public spheres; their deeply felt identities, interests and affinities; and civicengagement and opportunity.

As articulated within the framework of participatorypolitics, these activities can involve: production and circulation of information about amatter of public import; carrying out dialogue and feedback related to that issue; investi-gating topics that are consequential to the community; using that information to holdaccountable people in power; and mobilizing others on questions of justice, rights, andequality

3. by developingcross-cutting infrastructure, young peopleoften working in collabora-tion with adultsinstitutionalize their efforts in ways that make a loosely affiliated net-work into something that is socially organized, self-sustaining, and recognized as such bythose outside the original interest-driven community

One interesting initiative is “The Change Society” –a subgroup of older teens in the YouMedia fold who work with one of the organization’s mentors to create media pieces (music, poetry, video) with a focus on civic engagement.

Specials are opportunities for students to do work in specific areas of curricular interest—Lego Robotics League, Anime Book Club, Civilization League, Spoken Word, and so on— or for one-on-one tutoring of students who may want or need extra help in reading or numeracy.

Choice courses run for six weeks, two Choice sessions per semester. In the sixth grade, Choice classes meet four times each week.

Learnare electives created by faculty around topics

The students have first to gain an under-standing of where the food comes from and make decisions about what can be on the menu at what part of the year. During the last two weeks of the course, students create lunch for the entire school, applying math and science concepts