Civic Language Perceptions Project
PACE’s Civic Language Perceptions Project seeks to understand peoples’ perceptions of the language associated with civic engagement and democracy work.
The words Americans use to describe, debate, and examine our civic values, ideals, and practices are also the words we use to connect, share, and co-create our community and national future. What can we know about how aligned we are on our language choices related to our civic lives? Perhaps a more important concern underlies this question: are we talking past each other about values we think we share?
In 2019, PACE took its first steps of exploration on this topic. Since then, the world has changed, the need to understand has grown, and the questions about what we do have become more urgent.
2021-2022: PACE Surveys 5,000 Americans about Perceptions + Associations
In 2021, we began to deepen and broaden our inquiry. We fielded a nationally representative survey of 5000 American voters, which gathered information on 21 terms frequently used in “civic engagement and democracy work,” and provided insight into respondents’ perceptions and who they associated with using the words.
The result was 16,000 pages of data, which was organized into an interactive dashboard and released along with early findings in a March 2022 webinar. Throughout the year, PACE designed, developed, and implemented a variety of programs and activities that (a) increased capacity to analyze the quantitative data, and (b) democratized the analysis process and encouraged the civic field to engage with the data for their own learning and goals. This phase included deep dive sessions, focus groups, mini-papers, mini-grants, infographics, and Civic Language Solution Sprints, as well as two reports: America + Civic Language and Civic Language Guidance.
Acknowledgements and Thanks: This phase of the Civic Language Perceptions Project was made possible with support from the Rita Allen Foundation, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the McKnight Foundation.
2023-2024: PACE Re-Surveys Americans to Explore What's Underneath Perceptions
Heading into 2024, we continue to find that the words we use in our civic lives–our civic language–has become deeply coded and loaded, leaving little space for connection or productive discussion within our communities. Where we used to think we were just saying words, we now realize we are speaking in signals–sometimes constructive, sometimes destructive, sometimes intentional, sometimes unintentional.
Building on the civic language research PACE conducted in 2021-2022, PACE partnered with Citizen Data to re-field another nationally representative civic language survey of 5000 American voters. Major findings from this survey will be released on March 6, 2024, as well as an updated dashboard (with the 2023 and 2021 data available to compare), a webinar series diving into the stickiest civic language challenges and sharing insights to help navigate, and the roll-out of an AI-powered tool, Pluralytics, that helps civic leaders answer the question “What should I say instead?”
Acknowledgements and Thanks: This phase of the Civic Language Perceptions Project was made possible with support from the McKnight Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.
ReSOURCES FROM THE CIViC LANGUAGE PERCEPTIONS PROJECT
EXPLORE THE 2021 DATA
EXPLORE THE 2021 ANALYSIS
AMERICA + CIVIC LANGUAGE
Learn from PACE’s most compelling insights from our 2021 research, including the assumptions about civic language that our data affirm, the assumptions they complicate, and the findings we need to face.
CIVIC LANGUAGE GUIDANCE: WISDOM FROM THE FIELD
Learn from civic funders and practitioners who share 24 areas of guidance based on their experience experimenting and navigating specific civic language challenges.
LEARN OUT LOUD WITH US
PACE has an organizational commitment to “Learn out Loud” and will be publishing periodic reflections and learnings (and guest contributions) in the Language vertical on our Medium page, Office of Citizen.
Why So Many Americans Feel Left Out by Theodore Johnson for the Washington Post
You Say Unity, I Say Belonging… by Angela Graham for the Fetzer Institute
Branding Civility by Sarah Kersting-Mumm for the NICD Research Network
But what should we say instead? by Kristen Cambell on “Office of CItizen”
People Support Civics and Civics Supports Democracy by Kristen Cambell on “Office of Citizen”
What’s Democracy to You? by Theodore Johnson in The Bulwark
Philanthropy’s Role in Building Bridges for an Equitable Future, by Kyle Caldwell for CMF’s The Download
What is Pluralism? by Daniel Stid in The Art of Association
How States Can Strengthen K-12 Civics Education, by Shawn Healy for EdNote
Civic Values in Conflict? by Kaleb Nyquist on “Office of Citizen”
What Do We Think When We Hear “Civic?” by Brad Rourke for his blog
Democratizing Civic Language Data Through Mini-Grant Projects, an aggregation of some learnings from our mini-grant applicants
Who are today’s republicans (in the classic sense of the word)? by Peter Levine for his blog
If you want young Evangelicals to be neighborly, dump the jargon, by Kevin Singer for Neighborly Faith
Acknowledgments
PACE appreciates the work of the entire team at Citizen Data, our polling partner, Kyle Chambers, our data scientist, and Cameron Blossom, our graphic designer, for bringing this project to life. We also appreciate the many partners and friends who gave advice and feedback during the development process. This project is a reflection of countless conversations that shaped it to be of greatest service to the civic field.