Writing and Speaking

We strive to continually share, write and speak about our ideas, experiences and work. Here we share a selection of recent formal and informal publications and talks.

Selected Writing

Henry Jenkins, Sangita Shresthova, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, and Liana Gamber-Thompson, “Super-Powers to the People!: How Young Activists are Tapping the Civic Imagination,” in Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis (eds.) Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016), 295-320.

Henry Jenkins, Sangita Shresthova, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, Liana Gamber-Thompson, Arely Zimmerman. By Any Media Necessary: The New Activism of American Youth (New York: NYU Press, 2016).

Henry Jenkins, "Civic Imagination for Social Change" on USC Center FOR Public Diplomacy Blog (Los Angeles, December 5, 2016).

Sangita Shresthova, "Dance It, Film It, Share It: Exploring Participatory Dances and Civic Potential, in David J. Elliot, Marissa Silverman, Wayne D. Bowman (eds) Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis (October 2016).

Gabriel Peters-Lazaro, "Civic Imagination at the 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change", on Medium.com (July 28., 2016).

Recent Talks

"Remixing the Civic Imagination"

Talk delivered by Henry Jenkins on February 2, 2017 at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, University of California Santa Barbara

“What Else Can You Do With Them?”:

Superheroes and the Civic Imagination

Talk by Henry Jenkins delivered in December 2016

Listen to the audio of this talk here:

We strive to continually share, write and speak about our ideas, experiences and work. Here we share a selection of formal and informal publications and talks.

POPULAR CULTURE AND CIVIC IMAGINATION (2020)

Across more than thirty examples from social movements around the world, this casebook proposes “civic imagination” as a framework that can help us identify, support, and practice new kinds of communal participation. As the contributors demonstrate, young people, in particular, are turning to popular culture—from Beyoncé to Bollywood, from Smokey Bear to Hamilton, from comic books to VR—for the vernacular through which they can express their discontent with current conditions.

PARTICIPATORY POLITICS IN AN AGE OF CRISIS

A network conversation through Henry Jenkins blog: "We launched this conversation about “Participatory Politics in an Age of Crisis”, in part, as a way of celebrating our own decade long conversations around these issues within the Civic Paths research group and the Youth and Participatory Politics Network. In particular, I wanted to direct attention to the paperback publication of our book, By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism. But, clearly, the topic struck a responsive chord, allowing us to bring together participants who wanted to share their own insights about the ways debates on participatory politics are playing out in many different national contexts and across multiple disciplines. And the series has brought forward a range of literature that might speak to these issues."

PRACTICING FUTURES: A CIVIC IMAGINATION HANDBOOK (FORTHCOMING)

Practicing Futures: A Civic Imagination Action Handbook is a practical guide to the civic imagination that supports educators, change-makers, creative professionals and community leaders in developing civically focused story worlds and campaigns that can change our world. We define civic imagination as an active practice envisioning social change that leads to a better world. Civic imagination supports the creation and strengthening of imagined/imagining communities, one’s own civic agency, respect and understanding for the perspectives of others, and opportunities for freedom and equality that have not yet been experienced.

BY ANY MEDIA NECESSARY: THE NEW YOUTH ACTIVISM

By Any Media Necessary offers a profoundly different picture of contemporary American youth. Young men and women are tapping into the potential of new forms of communication such as social media platforms, spreadable videos and memes, remixing the language of popular culture, and seeking to bring about political change—by any media necessary. In a series of case studies covering a diverse range of organizations, networks, and movements involving young people in the political process—from the Harry Potter Alliance which fights for human rights in the name of the popular fantasy franchise to immigration rights advocates using superheroes to dramatize their struggles—By Any Media Necessary examines the civic imagination at work.

Here are some additional publications and talk that relate to our work on the civic imagination.

Henry Jenkins, Sangita Shresthova, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, and Liana Gamber-Thompson, “Super-Powers to the People!: How Young Activists are Tapping the Civic Imagination,” in Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis (eds.) Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016), 295-320.

Henry Jenkins, "Civic Imagination for Social Change" on USC Center FOR Public Diplomacy Blog (Los Angeles, December 5, 2016).

Sangita Shresthova, "Dance It, Film It, Share It: Exploring Participatory Dances and Civic Potential, in David J. Elliot, Marissa Silverman, Wayne D. Bowman (eds) Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis (October 2016).

Gabriel Peters-Lazaro, "Civic Imagination at the 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change", on Medium.com (July 28., 2016).

"Remixing the Civic Imagination"- Talk delivered by Henry Jenkins on February 2, 2017 at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, University of California Santa Barbara