Citizenship and Democracy
Leading: Rachel, Brian, Greg
In class this week we will discuss these readings (available on CTools and outside of the SI main office near the GSI mailboxes):
• Walzer, M. “The Idea of Civil Society: A Path to Social Reconstruction” Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America. Ed. E. J. Dionne. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1998. (pp. 123-143)
• Boyte, H. C. and N. N. Kari. Building America: The Democratic Promise of Public Work. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. (pp. 1-32, 164-178)
• Resnick, Paul. “A Preliminary Classification Scheme for Public Information Work. (http://www.si.umich.edu/~presnick/papers/civicextension/PublicInformationWorkClassification.doc)
Please post your responses, comments, questions, observations, misgivings, concerns, etc. regarding the readings as a comment to this post by Wednesday (11/28) evening. These will be used to lead class discussion on Friday.
Thanks!
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Blogs, online communities, local list-serves?
Good questions, Brian. I think an interesting aspect of your third question is are there new forms of participation that are being enabled by technology? Harkening back to last week's readings, one of the criticisms of Putnam has been that his measures for social capital are outdated, e.g., civic and fraternal group participation. A similar criticism has been leveled at those who take voting as a measure of civic participation.
Dana Walker, an SI doctoral student is taking up the question of how blogs and new online forms are becoming deliberative spaces. This question, in my mind, challenges some of the hegmonic views we have about what makes for good deliberation, or the "right" form of engagement. Is it possible that technology-enabled forms of communication are helping facilitate a new form of civil society?