Koen P.R. Bartels
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781447318507
- eISBN:
- 9781447318521
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447318507.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Participatory democracy has become an unshakable norm and widespread practice. Nowadays, public professionals and citizens regularly encounter each other in participatory practice to address shared ...
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Participatory democracy has become an unshakable norm and widespread practice. Nowadays, public professionals and citizens regularly encounter each other in participatory practice to address shared problems. But while the frequency, pace, and diversity of their public encounters has increased, communicating productively in participatory practice remains a challenging, fragile, and demanding undertaking that often runs astray. This book explores how citizens and public professionals communicate, why this is so difficult, and what could lead to more productive conversations. This done by comparing cases of community participation in neighbourhood governance in three European countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy). An emergent, grounded theory is presented based on interpretive research of the narratives citizens and public professionals tell about participatory practice. The theory of communicative capacity holds that citizens and public professionals tend to sustain habitual communicative patterns that limit their ability to cooperatively solve the problems they are facing together. Therefore, they need the ability to recognise and break through these habitual patterns by adapting the nature, tone, and conditions of conversations to the ‘law of the situation’. Exercising communicative capacity will enable public professionals and citizens to have more integrative encounters leading to shared understandings, joint activities, and cooperative relating. As such, the book presents policy makers, practitioners, students, and academics with a much needed evidence base for understanding and appreciating the often overlooked impact of communicative practices in participatory theory and practice.Less
Participatory democracy has become an unshakable norm and widespread practice. Nowadays, public professionals and citizens regularly encounter each other in participatory practice to address shared problems. But while the frequency, pace, and diversity of their public encounters has increased, communicating productively in participatory practice remains a challenging, fragile, and demanding undertaking that often runs astray. This book explores how citizens and public professionals communicate, why this is so difficult, and what could lead to more productive conversations. This done by comparing cases of community participation in neighbourhood governance in three European countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy). An emergent, grounded theory is presented based on interpretive research of the narratives citizens and public professionals tell about participatory practice. The theory of communicative capacity holds that citizens and public professionals tend to sustain habitual communicative patterns that limit their ability to cooperatively solve the problems they are facing together. Therefore, they need the ability to recognise and break through these habitual patterns by adapting the nature, tone, and conditions of conversations to the ‘law of the situation’. Exercising communicative capacity will enable public professionals and citizens to have more integrative encounters leading to shared understandings, joint activities, and cooperative relating. As such, the book presents policy makers, practitioners, students, and academics with a much needed evidence base for understanding and appreciating the often overlooked impact of communicative practices in participatory theory and practice.
Mark Bevir and Jason Blakely
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198832942
- eISBN:
- 9780191871344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198832942.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Interpretive philosophy opens a novel range of empirical topics for researchers. This chapter focuses on synchronic research topics (or those pertaining to a single snapshot of time) and argues that ...
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Interpretive philosophy opens a novel range of empirical topics for researchers. This chapter focuses on synchronic research topics (or those pertaining to a single snapshot of time) and argues that anti-naturalism generates distinctive ways of studying beliefs, identities, cultural practices, traditions, and political resistance. Examples are drawn from cutting-edge interpretive research into subjects like the politics of Islam, race, globalization, and democratic civic engagement. In addition, some of the more controversial findings of mainstream social science are engaged, including Samuel Huntington’s thesis that global politics consists of a “clash of civilizations”; Michelle Alexander’s argument that the United States is experiencing a new Jim Crow; and Robert Putnam’s view that American democracy is suffering a decline in civic engagement.Less
Interpretive philosophy opens a novel range of empirical topics for researchers. This chapter focuses on synchronic research topics (or those pertaining to a single snapshot of time) and argues that anti-naturalism generates distinctive ways of studying beliefs, identities, cultural practices, traditions, and political resistance. Examples are drawn from cutting-edge interpretive research into subjects like the politics of Islam, race, globalization, and democratic civic engagement. In addition, some of the more controversial findings of mainstream social science are engaged, including Samuel Huntington’s thesis that global politics consists of a “clash of civilizations”; Michelle Alexander’s argument that the United States is experiencing a new Jim Crow; and Robert Putnam’s view that American democracy is suffering a decline in civic engagement.
Carolyn M. Hendriks, Selen A. Ercan, and John Boswell
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198843054
- eISBN:
- 9780191878954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198843054.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Chapter 2 offers a critical review of three systemic accounts of deliberative democracy, focusing on their assumptions about democratic connectivity. It draws attention to the ‘communicative ...
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Chapter 2 offers a critical review of three systemic accounts of deliberative democracy, focusing on their assumptions about democratic connectivity. It draws attention to the ‘communicative miracles’ that lie at the heart of each deliberative system account—‘miracles’ that are out of step with contemporary disconnects experienced in the representative process, in the public sphere itself, and along the policy process. The chapter shows that these ‘communicative miracles’ are not only theoretical blind spots, but also practical obstacles hindering deliberative democracy from speaking more directly to, and serving as a richer resource for, democratic renewal. The chapter calls for a more empirically informed account of connectivity in contemporary public deliberation, one that is grounded in the work and agency of those involved in making or strengthening connectivity. It argues that an abductive research approach that employs interpretive methods is particularly well suited for developing such empirically informed accounts of connectivity. The chapter concludes by making the case for the close study of contemporary political practices, especially focused on how diverse actors are experiencing democratic disconnects, and what actions they are taking to mend them.Less
Chapter 2 offers a critical review of three systemic accounts of deliberative democracy, focusing on their assumptions about democratic connectivity. It draws attention to the ‘communicative miracles’ that lie at the heart of each deliberative system account—‘miracles’ that are out of step with contemporary disconnects experienced in the representative process, in the public sphere itself, and along the policy process. The chapter shows that these ‘communicative miracles’ are not only theoretical blind spots, but also practical obstacles hindering deliberative democracy from speaking more directly to, and serving as a richer resource for, democratic renewal. The chapter calls for a more empirically informed account of connectivity in contemporary public deliberation, one that is grounded in the work and agency of those involved in making or strengthening connectivity. It argues that an abductive research approach that employs interpretive methods is particularly well suited for developing such empirically informed accounts of connectivity. The chapter concludes by making the case for the close study of contemporary political practices, especially focused on how diverse actors are experiencing democratic disconnects, and what actions they are taking to mend them.
