Placing Latino Civic Engagement

Abstract

This study presents survey data assessing the civic and place engagement of Latino residents of three inner-ring Latino neighborhoods in Phoenix, Miami, and Chicago. We utilize a Latino/a Studies-inspired conceptual framework to assess the civic and place engagement of

Understanding Latinx Civic Engagement in a New Immigrant Gateway

“…Because civic engagement is correlated with income and education, promoting broader advancement of Latinx will enhance their overall SES and capacity to sociopolitically engage. Beyond these factors, Price and colleagues (2011) assert that “full cultural citizenship” is ultimately what will spur higher Latinx civic and place engagement. Latinx cultural citizenshipnames a range of social practices which, taken together, claim and establish a distinct social space for Latinx in this country.…”

“…Future research could compare Latinx civic engagement in different neighborhoods because there are place-based differences—including the physical layout of the homes and built environment, local history, place personality, social functionalities, and demographic dynamics—that influence neighborhood civic and place engagement (Price et al, 2011). There is also potential to expand this study to examine to what extent Latinx civic engagement is occurring predominantly within Latinx organizations versus if their engagement is with(in) non-Latinx residents and institutions.…”

“…The extent to which demographic variables influence civic engagement may vary in different geographic Latinx communities. Price and colleagues (2011) demonstrated this in a study about Latinx civic engagement in three neighborhoods in three different cities: Little Havana, Miami; Pilson, Chicago; and Garfield, Phoenix. For Garfield and Pilsen, U.S. citizenship, homeownership, U.S. birth, some degree of English fluency, and higher socioeconomic status (SES) were most significantly and consistently associated with measures of neighborhood civic engagement.…”

Race and ethnicity

“…Though notoriously situational in nature, pan-ethnic and interracial solidarities can potentially, over a longer period, lead to more-durable ‘tissues’ of engagement that in turn encourage further solidarity and activism (Nelson and Hiemstra, 2008; Price et al, 2011). Thus the rallies of 2006 may have begun to form new structures of pan-Latino/a engagement in new places, as well as build upon and strengthen existing structures rooted in minority political movements in the 1960s (for a detailed history of the latter, see Pulido, 2006).…”