How to cultivate “civility” in the field of social services?
CINEFOGO researchers have focused on the meaning of civility in the civil society debate, and conclude, that civicness is not exclusively a concern of state policies and administrations, nor is there a natural prior link of civicness with the operations of TSOs. Rather, civicness seems to be the outcome of the cooperation between various sides, where the hybridization of service organizations is key to enhance the civicness of services, and thereby cultivate civility in the field of social services. There is much consent about what civility is, namely social concern, involvement and responsibility, and what it is contrary to: selfish behaviour and indifference towards others. CINEFOGO researchers point out: “Obviously the question comes up, what processes and institutions in society can cultivate the positive “civic” orientations and values just mentioned”. The researchers suggest taking civicness to a wider expression and analyze the mutual links of institutional settings on the one hand, and the behaviour of politicians, professionals and users on the other. “Civicness” can be categorized into three dimensions: • Social • Personal • Political The social dimension of civicness regards the overall degree to which a society and political community is addressing all citizens as being basically similar to one another despite all differences. When it comes to social systems, civicness regards the overall degree to which they have an inclusive character and contribute to social integration. “Uncivic” service systems are characterized by systems that target, discriminate or stigmatize specific groups. The personal dimension of civicness shows in the daily behaviour of people, from passivity and egoism and other forms of uncivil behaviour to challenges of developing respect and tolerance. “Uncivicness” is characterized by authoritative attitudes putting users in a narrow framework of rules and managerial routines. The political dimension concerns governance and its democratic qualities. “One could possibly say that forms of mere hierarchical decisionmaking or concepts of governance that address service users only as consumers, focussing on individual “choice” while neglecting “voice” and community, run against attempts towards a kind of governance that enhances civicness” Working paper and presentation are available to download from the CINEFOGO database: http://cinefogo.cuni.cz/index.php?&addSearch[addnetvork]=-1&addSearch[addoutcome]=-1&addSearch[addpolicyfield]=-1&addSearch[addlang]=-1&addSearch[addtarget]=-1&addSearch[addpolicytarget]=-1&w=50&srch=wp15&id_result=55652 Contact: Scientific Communication Officer Julia Miljevic E-mail juliamil@ruc.dk
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