Introduction

 

I began working in earnest on issues of political participation and civic engagement in the mid-1980s, primarily as part of the work I did with what was then called the Lincoln Filene Center, at Tufts.  I started working with the Director of Citizen Participation programs there, Ken Thomson, and this eventually led to a major research grant from the Ford Foundation that allowed us to study citywide systems of neighborhood participation.  This yielded a book called The Rebirth of Urban Democracy (co-authored with Thomson and Jeff Berry) that won a number of awards, and has been credited with influencing the creation of participation systems such as that in Los Angeles.  I also sponsored two major public opinion surveys in the late 1990s, national surveys of civic and political participation of young people.  These surveys consisted of large samples of people aged 18 to 26, and were used to examine patterns of engagement and disengagement. There are two papers available below analyzing the data from these surveys, one co-authored with Dick Niemi (University of Rochester) and Ike Eichenberg (Tufts), and the other co-authored with Niemi and David King (Kennedy School of Government). My civic engagement research inevitably touched upon the role of the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organizations, social capital, and local advocacy groups especially in the context of sustainable cities. 

 

 

Books

 

2007 -- Acting Civically: From Local Neighborhoods to Higher

Education. Hanover, NH: Tufts University Press/University

Press of New England. Co-edited with Susan Ostrander.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2003 -- Surveying Nonprofits: A Methods Handbook.

Washington, D.C.: The Aspen Institute. Co-authored with

Jeffrey Berry, David Arons, Gary Bass, and Matthew Carter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1993 -- The Rebirth of Urban Democracy. Washington, D.C:

Brookings Institution Press. Co-authored with Jeffrey Berry

and Ken Thomson. Winner, APSA’s 1994 Gladys Kammerer

Award for “Best Book in American National Politics;” Winner,

PSA Urban Politics Section's 1994 “Best Book in Urban Politics.”

 

 

 

 

Articles, Book Chapters, and Papers

 

2016 -- Kent E. Portney and Jeffrey M. Berry, “The Impact of Local Environmental Advocacy Groups on City Sustainability Policies and Programs,” Policy Studies Journal, 44 (2), pp. 196-214.

 

2016 -- Kent E. Portney and Jeffrey M. Berry, “The Group and Ideological Bases of Local Sustainability Policies and Programs,” in Kevin Archer and Kris Bezdecny, eds. The International Handbook of Cities and the Environment. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishers, forthcoming. Co-authored with Jeff Berry.

 

2014 -- Kent E. Portney and Jeffrey M. Berry, “Civil Society and Sustainable Cities,” in Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp.395-419.

 

2014 -- Jeffrey M. Berry and Kent E. Portney, “The Group Basis of City Politics,” in Robert Pekkanen, Steven R. Smith, and Y. Tsukinaka, eds., Nonprofits and Advocacy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

 

2013 -- Jeffrey M. Berry and Kent E. Portney,“Sustainability and Interest Group Participation in City Politics,” in “Sustainable Cities” symposium issue of Sustainability, Vol. 5, pp. 2077-2097. Open Access.

 

2010 -- Jeffrey M. Berry and Kent E. Portney, “Participation and the Pursuit of Sustainability in U.S. Cities,” in Urban Affairs Review, Volume 46, No. 1, September, pp. 119-139.

 

2010 -- Kent E. Portney and Zachary Cuttler, “The Local Nonprofit Sector and the Pursuit of Sustainability in American Cities: A Preliminary Exploration,” in Local Environment, Volume 15, No. 4, April, pp. 323-339.

 

2010 -- Richard Niemi, Kent E, Portney, and Richard Eichenberg, "Gender Differences in Political and Civic Engagement among Young People."

 

2009 -- Richard Niemi, Kent E, Portney, and David King, "Sampling Young Adults: Internet Surveys and Inferences About the Political Engagement of College Students."

 

2007 -- Kent E. Portney and Jeffrey M. Berry, “Neighborhoods, Neighborhood Associations, and Social Capital,” in Susan Ostrander and Kent Portney, eds., Acting Civically: From Local Neighborhoods to HigherEducation. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, pp. 21-43.

 

2006 -- Jeffrey M. Berry, Kent E. Portney, Robin Liss, Jessica Simoncelli, and Lisa Berger, “Power and Interest Groups in City Politics.,” Monograph, Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, December. Powerpoint available online at http://www.hks.harvard.edu/content/download/68658/1247442/version/1/file/berry_interestgroups.pdf

 

2005 -- Kent E. Portney, “Civic Engagement and Sustainable Cities in the U.S.” in Public Administration Review, Vol. 65, No. 5, September/October, pp. 579-591.

 

1997 -- Kent E. Portney and Jeffrey M. Berry, “Mobilizing Minority Communities," in American Behavioral Scientist, Symposium on "Social Capital, Civil Society, and Contemporary Democracy," Vol. 40, No. 5, April, pp. 631-643.

 

1991 – Kent E. Portney, Jeffrey M. Berry and Ken Thomson,“The Political Behavior of Poor People," in Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Peterson, eds. The Urban Underclass. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, pp. 357-372. Co-authored with Jeffrey Berry and Ken Thomson.

 

1989 -- Kent E. Portney, Jeffrey M. Berry and Ken Thomson, “Empowering Citizens," Chapter 15 in James L. Perry, ed. The Handbook of Public Administration. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 208-221.

 

1984 -- Jeffrey M. Berry, Kent E. Portney, Mary Beth Balitch, and Richard Mahoney, “Public Involvement in Administration: The Structural Determinants of Effective Citizen Participation,” Journal of Voluntary Action Research, Vol. 13, No. 2, April, pp. 7-23.

 

 

Civic and Political Engagement of Young People Survey Data

 

            2006 National Survey of Civic and Political Engagement of Young People Questionnaire

 

          2006 National Survey of Civic and Political Engagement of Young People Data (SPSS format) [Contact Kent Portney for this dataset]

 

          2007 National Survey of Civic and Political Engagement of Young People Questionnaire

 

          2007 National Survey of Civic and Political Engagement of Young People Data (SPSS format) [Contact Kent Portney for this dataset]