Experts, Extension, and Democracy: A Prospectus for a New Urban Grant

Modern democracy cannot survive without effective citizen participation. The complexity of modern post-industrial life, unfortunately, is an impediment to participation. A new urban grant might be our best hope to enable real citizen participation in modern urban America, but Extension professionals would have to reach deep into our own past to resurrect a participatory ethos and even farther into early American history for models of civic professionalism. A new urban grant would expand well beyond agriculture and embrace the recent calls for an "energy grant," a climate Extension service, and a hazard mitigation Extension service, among others.