By Martín Carcasson

Amid perhaps the most polarized time in our nation’s history, the quality of public discourse has also reached historic lows. Civic engagement practitioners must find ways to build capacity in our communities and campuses to change the dialogue, work against the overly adversarial climate, and support the kind of conversation democracy requires. Martin Carcasson made the case for taking a “wicked problems” perspective on tough issues to work toward improving the quality of public discourse and building the necessary civic skill sets and mindsets in our students.