PACE’s Civic Language Perceptions Project seeks to understand peoples’ perceptions of the language associated with “civic engagement and democracy” work. At best, are we talking past each other? At worst, are we furthering divisions and/or disengagement? 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. In partnership with Citizen Data, the Rita Allen Foundation, and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, PACE fielded a nationally representative survey in November 2021 to poll 21 terms commonly used in “civic engagement and democracy” work and to understand how people perceive and associate them. PACE released the data on March 23, 2022.
For additional depth, survey participants were asked a series of demographic questions, which means we can do a specific look to understand civic language based on race. How do members of different racial groups perceive terms used in "civic engagement and democracy" work? How do they associate them? What insights can we glean from the data?
Join us on Thursday, May 26, 2022 from 3-4pm Eastern for an overview of the Civic Language Perceptions Project with a particular look at the relationship between race and civic language.