Pope Francis: “We must not be a Church closed in on itself, which looks at its navel, a self-referential Church, who looks at itself and is not able to transcend. Twofold transcendence is important: toward God and toward one’s neighbor.”

“She’s so cute. I mean, all babies are cute, but she is seriously, like, the cutest baby I’ve ever seen.” People tell me how cute or beautiful or totes presh my 16-month old daughter is basically every day we are out and about, and I’ve heard some version of that initial quote about a dozen times. Despite my rather strong feelings on the objectification of human persons, particularly young girls, this doesn’t really bug me.

How can I complain? I love pointing out babies to my daughter and seeing her react excitedly, as I say, “Look at that cute little baby!” Seeing a baby or toddler, especially when they are playing or laughing or smiling, is wonderful. They each bring so much joy and hope into the world by their little presence. I love seeing babies and kids on my social media feeds. And while I only comment on…

Like so many others, I was stunned and saddened by the news of James Foley, Marquette University ‘94, who was apparently beheaded by ISIS insurgents as retribution for US airstrikes in Iraq against the group. I did not know James Foley personally, but as a Catholic educator, I feel like I know a lot of students like him: smart, idealistic, committed, and brave. In his story, I see the stories of so many of my students. The gravity of his life and untimely death offers occasion to think about the values that make uncommon virtue so common among students like James Foley. In short, what is it about Catholic education that prepares students to pay the cost of discipleship?

Upon the news of Foley’s death, Marquette Magazine reposted a 2011 piece, “Phone call home,” where Foley reflects on the role his Marquette education played in his experience of political imprisonment…

Pope Francis: “If everyone does his part, if we all put the human person and his dignity at the center, and if we consolidate an attitude of solidarity and fraternal sharing, inspired by the Gospel, we can emerge from the swamp of this difficult and burdensome period of economic turmoil.”

Pope Francis: “The great threat in today’s world is the loneliness of hearts oppressed by greed.”

So what does the evidence about citizen engagement say? Particularly in the development world it is common to say that the evidence is “mixed”. It is the type of answer that, even if correct in extremely general terms, does not really help those who are actually designing and implementing citizen engagement reforms.

This is why a new (GPSA-funded) work by Jonathan Fox, “Social Accountability: What does the Evidence Really Say” is a welcome contribution for those working with open government in general and citizen engagement in particular. Rather than a paper, this work is intended as a presentation that summarizes (and disentangles) some of the issues related to citizen engagement.

Before briefly discussing it, some definitional clarification. I am equating “social accountability” with the idea of citizen engagement given Jonathan’s very definition of  social accountability:

“Social accountability strategies try to improve public sector performance by bolstering both citizen…