“All On An Equal Plain”

This essay argues that higher education can regain public trust, forge vital, reciprocal relationships with communities, and help to awaken democracy as a way of life if colleges and universities become “filled with the democratic spirit.” Renewing democratic spirit on a large scale requires recovery of the public and civic dimensions of professionals’ work in higher education, which is central to shaping the culture of colleges and universities. The essay describes the transformation of professional identities from “civic” to “disciplinary,” fed by the logic of instrumental rationality, the resulting crisis across the sweep of modern professions, and the development of the theory of public work and citizen professionalism at the University of Minnesota and later at Augsburg University as a response. Finding enthusiasm about the idea at the 2024 CUMU conference and drawing on case studies from many different settings and disciplines, the co-authors wrote this piece to speak to the potential for citizen professionalism to spread as a theory of public action and set of democratic practices with large positive effects.