Street protest has long been society’s default response to disagreement and injustice — but is it always the right one? In this thought-provoking piece for IPS Insights, Dr. Maria Khalid introduces the concept of “Intelligent Civic Response”: the idea that societies possess finite civic capital — attention, trust, goodwill, energy — and must choose their responses as strategically as they choose their causes. From dialogue and policy engagement to research and institution-building, she argues that civic maturity lies not in the frequency of reaction, but in the wisdom to match the response to the moment.

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