It is emerging in many disciplines and fields of human endeavor.Elinor Ostrom's whole body of work, for which she won the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, has been interpreted as an important forerunner of Civic Studies.
Filippo Sabetti traces Civic Studies back to the practices of "governance [that] were worked out in the free cities of Germany and Italy" in the Middle Ages.
The emerging field of civic studies, which is organically developing within several academic and political sectors, offers a particularly promising home.
"[9] Meira Levinson writes that an aim of her book No Citizen Left Behind[10] was "to bring together research and practice from ... shockingly distinct literatures, traditions, and knowledge bases.
For example, in sustainability research, it has been cited as the source of the question, "What do academics who work in the humanities and social sciences have to offer to food justice, if anything?
"[18] In a white paper commissioned for a National Science Foundation workshop on Civic Science, Gwen Ottinger & Nicholas Jordan write, "Civic studies provides a framework for conceptualizing how scientific inquiry can serve as a democratic practice, and for theorizing about the contributions of scientific practice to democratic culture.
In April 2016, Tufts University "announced a $15 million gift from alumnus (A'76) Jonathan Tisch and his wife, Lizzie" for Civic Studies.