Rethinking Civic Participation in Democratic Theory and Practice
Rethinking Civic Participation in Democratic Theory and Practice

Author: Rod Dacombe

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-11-27

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 113758825X

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This book makes an important contribution to contemporary debates over the place of civic participation in democratic theory and practice. Drawing on a detailed case study of the Blackbird Leys area of Oxford, the book employs a novel empirical approach to ask whether widespread participation in civic life can enhance the prospects for democracy, given the low levels of participation which tend to exist in deprived areas. Throughout, it presents an account of participation rooted in the history and development of the case, in order to avoid the kinds of abstraction which are characteristic of many existing studies in the area. The book will appeal to scholars working on democratic theory in applied settings, and will be of interest to anyone concerned with inequalities in civic participation.

Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics
Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics

Author: Loïc Wacquant

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2005-06-10

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0745634877

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Pierre Bourdieu was a brilliant sociologist and social thinker; he was also an intensely political man whose work is of profound significance for rethinking democracy. This original volume presents and develops Bourdieu's distinctive contribution to the theory and practice of democratic politics. It explicates and illustrates his core concepts of political field and field of power, his historical model of the bureaucratic state, and his influential analyses of the practices and institutions involved in the paradoxical phenomenon of political representation - starting with the enigma of delegation, or what he called the "mystery of ministry." The fruitfulness of Bourdieu's approach is demonstrated in a series of integrated studies of voting, public opinion polls, party dynamics, class rule, and state-building, as well as by careful analyses of Bourdieu's own civic engagements and his theoretical treatment of the politics of reason and recognition in contemporary society. Charting the connections between Bourdieu's political views, the main nodes of his sociology of democratic representation, and the implications of this sociology for progressive civic thought and action, this book will be of interest to students and scholars across the gamut of disciplines as well as to citizens concerned with renewing struggles for social justice.

Teaching Civic Engagement
Teaching Civic Engagement

Author: Alison Rios Millett McCartney

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 9781878147400

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Teaching Civic Engagement provides an exploration of key theoretical discussions, innovative ideas, and best practices in educating citizens in the 21st century. The book addresses theoretical debates over the place of civic engagement education in Political Science. It offers pedagogical examples in several sub-fields, including evidence of their effectiveness and models of appropriate assessment. Written by political scientists from a range of institutions and subfields, Teaching Civic Engagement makes the case that civic and political engagement should be a central part of our mission as a discipline.

Understanding Citizen Journalism as Civic Participation
Understanding Citizen Journalism as Civic Participation

Author: Seungahn Nah

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-02-17

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1351984608

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Understanding Citizen Journalism as Civic Participation re-conceptualizes citizen journalism in the context of Habermas’s theory of the public sphere and communicative action, to examine how citizen journalism practice as civic participation may contribute to a heathier community and democracy in the civil society context. Citizen journalism has garnered growing attention owing to the participation of ordinary citizens in the performance of news production. Drawing on the authors’ decade-long collaboration on citizen journalism scholarship, this book posits a theoretical framework that relies on diverse communication perspectives to understand citizen journalism practice and its democratic consequences. This book will be of great relevance to scholars, researchers, professionals and policy makers working in the field of journalism and media studies, culture studies, and communication studies.

Participatory Democracy and Political Participation
Participatory Democracy and Political Participation

Author: Thomas Zittel

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-11-22

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1134194706

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A detailed new examination of the initiatives governments are exploring to reform the institutions and procedures of liberal democracy in order to provide more opportunities for political participation and inclusion. Combining theory and empirical case studies, this is a systematic evaluation of the most visible and explicit efforts to engineer political participation via institutional reforms. Part I discusses the phenomenon of participatory engineering from a conceptual standpoint, while parts II, III and IV take a comparative, as well as an empirical, perspective. The contributors to these sections analyze participatory institutions on the basis of empirical models of democracy such as direct democracy, civil society and responsive government and analyze the impact of these models on political behaviour. Part V includes exploratory regional case studies on specific reform initiatives that present descriptive accounts of the policies and politics of these reforms. Delivering a detailed assessment of democratic reform, this book will of strong interest to students and researchers of political theory, democracy and comparative politics.

Digital Technology and Democratic Theory
Digital Technology and Democratic Theory

Author: Lucy Bernholz

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-02-17

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 022674860X

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One of the most far-reaching transformations in our era is the wave of digital technologies rolling over—and upending—nearly every aspect of life. Work and leisure, family and friendship, community and citizenship have all been modified by now-ubiquitous digital tools and platforms. Digital Technology and Democratic Theory looks closely at one significant facet of our rapidly evolving digital lives: how technology is radically changing our lives as citizens and participants in democratic governments. To understand these transformations, this book brings together contributions by scholars from multiple disciplines to wrestle with the question of how digital technologies shape, reshape, and affect fundamental questions about democracy and democratic theory. As expectations have whiplashed—from Twitter optimism in the wake of the Arab Spring to Facebook pessimism in the wake of the 2016 US election—the time is ripe for a more sober and long-term assessment. How should we take stock of digital technologies and their promise and peril for reshaping democratic societies and institutions? To answer, this volume broaches the most pressing technological changes and issues facing democracy as a philosophy and an institution.

Deliberative Democracy between Theory and Practice
Deliberative Democracy between Theory and Practice

Author: Michael A. Neblo

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-11-19

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1107027675

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This book offers a model to bridge the differences between political theorists and social scientists, focusing on deliberative practices.

Democracy When the People Are Thinking
Democracy When the People Are Thinking

Author: James S. Fishkin

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-06-27

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0192551906

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Democracy requires a connection to the 'will of the people'. What does that mean in a world of 'fake news', relentless advocacy, dialogue mostly among the like-minded, and massive spending to manipulate public opinion? What kind of opinion can the public have under such conditions? What would democracy be like if the people were really thinking in depth about the policies they must live with? If they really 'deliberated' with good information about their political choices? This book argues that 'deliberative democracy' is not utopian. It is a practical solution to many of democracy's ills. It can supplement existing institutions with practical reforms. It can apply at all levels of government and for many different kinds of policy choices. This volume speaks to a recurring dilemma: listen to the people and get the angry voices of populism or rely on widely distrusted elites and get policies that seem out of touch with the public's concerns. Instead, there are methods for getting a representative and thoughtful public voice that is really worth listening to. Democracy is under siege in most countries, where democratic institutions have low approval and face a resurgent threat from authoritarian regimes. Deliberative democracy can provide an antidote and can reinvigorate our democratic politics. Democracy When the People Are Thinking draws on the author's research with many collaborators on 'Deliberative Polling'-a process conducted in 27 countries on six continents. It contributes both to political theory and to the empirical study of public opinion and participation. It should interest anyone concerned about the future of democracy and how it can be revitalized.

Democratic Innovations
Democratic Innovations

Author: Graham Smith

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-07-02

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 0521514770

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This book examines democratic innovations from around the world, drawing lessons for the future development of both democratic theory and practice.

Rethinking Citizenship Education
Rethinking Citizenship Education

Author: Tristan McCowan

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2011-11-03

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1441197672

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Rethinking Citizenship Education presents a fundamental reassessment of the field. Drawing on empirical research, the book argues that attempting to transmit preconceived notions of citizenship through schools is both unviable and undesirable. The notion of 'curricular transposition' is introduced, a framework for understanding the changes undergone in the passage between the ideals of citizenship, the curricular programmes designed to achieve them, their implementation in practice and the effects on students. The 'leaps' between these different stages make the project of forming students in a mould of predefined citizenship highly problematic. Case studies are presented of contrasting initiatives in Brazil, a country with high levels of political marginalisation, but also significant experiences of participatory democracy. These studies indicate that effective citizenship education depends on a harmonisation or 'seamless enactment' of the stages outlined above. In contrast, provision in countries such as the UK and USA is characterised by disjunctures, showing insufficient involvement of teachers in programme design, and a lack of space for the construction of students' own political understandings. Some more promising directions for citizenship education are proposed, therefore, ones which acknowledge the significance of pedagogical relations and school democratisation, and allow students to develop as political agents in their own right.