PEACE CORPS IN THE 21 ST CENTURY: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

19organization. Asen, however, wants to understand how people enact citizenship ratherthan asking what counts as citizenship. For Asen citizenship is a process, and he seeks tolook at democratic citizenship holistically. Thus, his discourse theory of citizenshipunderstands “citizenship as a mode of public engagement.” And citizenship conceived ofin this light “recognizes the fluid, multimodal, and quotidian enactments of citizenship ina multiple public sphere.” 57Civic engagement may happen in non-traditional ways.Zukin, et al., agree with most scholars that citizen engagement in U.S. public lifeis changing. They concur with Putnam and Asen that changes in “the nature and scope ofparticipation affect the quality of our democracy.” 58Unlike Putnam, Zukin et al. do notblame America’s youth for disengaging the American citizenry from public life. Rather,they argue “citizens are participating in a different mix of activities from in the past. . . .The volume of civic engagement has not declined so much as it has spread to a widervariety of channels.” 59The kinds of participation have shifted from our traditionalcategories. A significant part of the American public ignores voting and campaigningand focuses its efforts on civic activities. The division between political engagement andcivic engagement is central to the debate over citizenship. Younger generations aredisenfranchised by the political system; however, they remain interested in civic issueswhich often affect public policy. A decline in political engagement does not mean thatsociety is civically disengaged. For the purposes of this study, engagement includes newand different acts of voluntarism; civic engagement is not in decline. It is merely in needof reframing to include all aspects of service.