USC logo

Citizenville

Published by USC Bedrosian Center on

Featuring Raphael Bostic, David Sloane, and Sherry Bebitch Jeffe

In this edition of the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast, the faculty discuss California lieutenant  Governor, Gavin Newsom‘s book Citizenville.

Our first podcast was devoted to the behemoth book Capital in the Twenty-First Century. We wanted to take a bit of a mental break, and still tackle some serious issues. So we decided to read Citizenville. Subtitled “How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government,” the book boasts recommendations from folks like Cory Booker and President Bill Clinton to Marc Benioff and Craig Newmark, we thought it might have the right balance of showmanship and depth.

The book is about how government has not caught up with the ubiquity of smart phones and technology found in the rest of our everyday lives. It is a rallying cry for innovation from within government to revolutionize the way things are accomplished. Newsom argues that technological innovation will both create more efficiency and create a wider public responsiveness.

So did Raphael, David and Sherry have Gavin Newsom’s optimism that technology will easily reinvent government? Find out!

Raphael rewrites the subtitle: “Get up! Get off you butts and write an app!”

Listen through the player above, or subscribe on iTunes, Soundcloud, or Google Play.

Links to some of the things we discussed:

Nextrip
The Twenty-First Century City: Resurrecting Urban America by Stephen Goldsmith
Reinventing Government: How The Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming The Public Sector by David Osborne, Ted Gaebler
Gavin Newsom on The Colbert Report 
Community views on crime and policing: Survey mode effects on bias in community surveys by Karen M. Hennigan, Cheryl L. Maxson, David Sloane & Molly Ranney

This podcast was produced by Jonathan Schwartz, Ryan Hedden, and Aubrey Hicks.

Please follow the Bedrosian Center on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Bedrosian Center