Synopses & Reviews
In many societies, participatory democracy has become an unshakable norm and widespread practice, with public professionals and citizens regularly encountering each other in participatory practice to address shared problems. But while the frequency, pace, and diversity of these public encounters has increased, communication in participatory practice remains a challenging, fragile, and demanding undertaking that often runs astray. This unique book integrates empirical, theoretical, and practical material to explore how citizens and public professionals communicate, why this is so difficult, and what could lead to more productive conversations. Drawing on fifty-nine timely, original interviews conducted with public professionals and citizens to make a thorough comparative analysis of cases in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy, it shows policy makers, practitioners, students, and academics the value of communicative capacity.
Synopsis
The institutional forms of liberal democracy developed in the nineteenth century seem increasingly ill-suited to the problems we face in the twenty-first. This dilemma has given rise in some places to a new, deliberative democracy, and this volume explores four contemporary empirical cases in which the principles of such a democracy have been at least partially instituted: the participatory budget in Porto Alegre; the school decentralization councils and community policing councils in Chicago; stakeholder councils in environmental protection and habitat management; and new decentralised governance structures in Kerala. In keeping with the other Real Utopias Project volumes, these case studies are framed by an editors’ introduction, a set of commentaries, and concluding notes.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-303) and index.
Synopsis
Volume IV of the Real Utopias Project. Contributions by Rebecca Abers, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Joshua Cohen, Patrick Heller, T.M. Thomas Isaac, Bradley Karkkainen, Rebecca Krantz, Jane Mansbridge, Joel Rogers, Craig W. Thomas.
Synopsis
Erik Wright has made a towering contribution to the thought of the left over a quarter of a century. This arises from his own intellectual contribution ... but also from his tireless work in identifying issues, bringing people together, and encouraging them to publish their results.
About the Author
Archon Fung is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University.
Erik Olin Wright is Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of many books, including Classes, Interrogating Inequality, Class Counts, Deepening Democracy (with Archon Fung), and Envisioning Real Utopias. For more information on Envisioning Real Utopias and the Real Utopias project, and to access book content, please visit realutopias.org (site in progress).
Joshua Cohen was born in 1980 in New Jersey. He is the author of five books, including the novels Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto, A Heaven of Others, and Witz. Cohen’s essays have appeared in The Forward, Nextbook, The Believer, and Harper’s. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Joel Rogers is Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Director of COWS. His many books include On Democracy, Right Turn, The Forgotten Majority, and What Workers Want. A longtime activist, Rogers was identified by Newsweek as one of the 100 Americans most likely to shape U.S. politics and culture in the 21st century.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Communicating in participatory practice
Public encounters in participatory democracy: toward communicative capacity
Studying narratives of participatory practice
Communicative patterns: what happens when public professionals and citizens meet
Work in progress: engaging with the situation
Struggling: discussing the substantive issues at hand
Making connections: building and maintaining relationships
Conclusion: communicative capacity in participatory theory and practice
Recommendations: communicative capacity in practice and policy