Boyte - Constructive Politics As Public Work Organizing The Literature

Constructive Politics as Public Work: Organizing the Literature
Author(s): Harry C. Boyte

Source: Political Theory, Vol. 39, No. 5 (October 2011), pp. 630-660
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23036076
Accessed: 09-04-2015 16:58 UTC
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/23036076?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Political Theory.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 200.5.224.104 on Thu, 09 Apr 2015 16:58:55 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
PoliticalTheory
39(5) 630-660
2011 SAGE Publications
Reprintsand permission:http://www.
Constructive
Politics
as Public
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0090591711413747
Work:
Organizing
the Literature
C.
Harry
http://ptx.sagepub.com
SAGE
Boyte1
Abstract
This
fulfilling
the
ways
for citizens
to
its governance
processes.
essay
theory
requires
improve
civic
that
argues
or the
agency,
life, embodies
this
The
citizens
as
citizens
the
to
nal
normative,
labors
of creating
contention
through
commons,
political
elites.
agents
ideal
democratizing
with
build
with
commons,
forces
which
that
qualities
work
places
of democracy.
unmask
from
cultures.
ways
plurality,
not
commu
Shaped
of life and
discourses
states,
as the
crisis.
their
work
public
political
or
the
of
way
world,
in diverse
civic
markets
beyond
of the
generalized
of human
not
a path
a democratic
shared
sentimentalized
citizens,
It opens
expressing
the world. Public work is
roots
threaten
to
simply
work,
co-creators
of citizenship
in an understanding
grounded
Public
the
not
world,
of public
simply deliberators and decision-makers about

a
democratic
participatory
concept
of diverse
capacity
shift. It posits
of
promise
reconstruct
foundational
Keywords
Agency, citizenship, commonwealth, politics, public work

The Dutch
in some
have
3,000
11th century.
a long history of reclamation

polders
Due
nationwide.
to flooding
The
disasters
of marshes
first polders
water
boards
and fenland,
were
resulting
constructed
were
has
of modern
in the
set up to
'Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN

Author:
Corresponding
Harry C. Boyte, Augsburg College, 221 I Riverside Ave. CB 10, Minneapolis, MN 55454,
Email: boyteOO I @umn.edu
631
Boyte
maintain
the integrity of the water defences
inside
ways
a polder
elections,
separate
bodies
co-operation
its name
gave
are the oldest

between
to the Dutch
democratic
all ranks
version
maintain
polders,
water
levels.
Water
[who]
culty,
the Polder
with it, and then apply
for dealing
of a free community
authority
diffi
suggestions
conceived
at such moments,
...
Entry1
by some
various
the method
unanimously
who may or may not have any official
make
Model.
Wikipedia
checked
for himself,
each
The
integrity also
polder
of third way politics
of workmen
the problem
ponder
hold
in the country.
institution
in maintaining
"Polder,"
It is a fine sight to see a handful
the water
bodies
from other government
levy taxes and function independently

They
necessary
around
the various
and control
by one,
the image
appears.
Simone
Weil,
and Liberty2
Oppression
In the 1960s and 1970s social movements took up a myriad of causescivil

rights,women's liberation, independence, ending apartheid, nuclear disarma
ment,
in Vietnam,
peace
environmentalism,
gay rights,
power,
neighborhood
among others. Beyond differences, all challenged modern hierarchies and

depersonalizing trends. Alain Touraine's description of the French student
and labor strikes in May 1968 had wider application: "The enemy is no lon
of a social
ger a person
of the
totality
Participatory
matic
response
He
is the
of . . .
modes
bureaucratized
'rationalized',
depersonalized,
in modern
power
or the bourgeoisie.
the monarch
category,
society."3
democratic
to such
can
theory
democratic
be seen
as a conceptual
with
aspirations,
wide
and
program
As Jeffrey
currency.
Hilmer observes, "during its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, participatory
democratic
racy
theory
. . . was
a viable
considered
by American
as theorized
alternative
scientists."4
political
to liberal
Northerners
democ
like
Carole
Pateman, Jane Mansbridge, and Benjamin Barber joined theorists of the

Global South like Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, and Stephen Biko in consider
ing what
activist
democracy
requires.5
Yet
neither
stemmed revolutions from abovecorporate-led

zation,6
technocratic
thwarted
interventions7that
movements
nor
theorists
globalization and marketi

the "long
march
through
the institutions," in the phrase of II Manifesto,8 needed for democratization.

By the 1990s, participatory democratic theory had declined. Hilmer's sur
vey
finds
little mention
that deliberative
of it in recent
democracy
is a new
literature
stage
on democracy.
of active
democracy,
Some
propose
even
a "revo
lutionary political ideal,"9 but I argue that deliberation is a useful but modest
632
PoliticalTheory 39(5)
to create
attempt
an enclave
of agency
in times
of diminished
not
democracy,
sufficient for strong democracy. Jiirgen Habermas describes its limits: "We
are concerned with finite, embodied actors who are socialized in concrete
forms of life, situated in historical time and social space."10 Deliberation,
he says,
"invests
the democratic
with
process
normative
connotations
stron
ger than those found in the liberal model but weaker than those found in the
republican model." In his view, "The success of deliberative politics depends
not on a collectively acting citizenry but on the institutionalization of the cor
responding
and
procedures
conditions
of communication,
as well
as
on
the
interplay of institutionalized deliberative processes with informally devel

oped public opinions."11
Hilmer also describes stirrings of participatory democracy in the Global
South which are producing much more change than is suggested by delib
erative
The
democracy.12
from
democracy
first section
the vantage
of this
examines
essay
of participatory
deliberative
in order
democracy
to clarify
deliberation's strengths and limits. I build on the concept of maximum par

of people
ticipation
in governance
across
diverse
settings
(not
formal
only
politics but also family, workplace, education, etc). This is Hilmer's defini
tion,
shared.131
widely
also
argue
that for participatory
democratic
to
theory
realize its promise, citizens need ways to reconstruct the world, not simply
to improve its decision-making processes. Civic agency, people's capacities
to work
collectively
together,
addresses
across
this
differences
to build
Civic
challenge.
and
sustain
accents
agency
a democratic
life
the productive,
not
simply distributive, side of politics, including creating the commons, shared

resources
of
struggle
whose
puts
citizens
makers
common
as
about
life.
memories
co-creators
the world.
It illuminates
are
with
of the world,
The
immense
threatened
not
only
of public
concept
histories
obliteration.14
of
Civic
deliberators
work,
taken
popular
agency
or decision
up in a later
sec
tion, embodies co-creation. I locate public work in relation to other views of

active citizenship, particularly deliberation and associative democracy.
Public work is a normative, democratizing ideal of citizenship generalized
from
communal
labors
of making
and
the commons,
tending
with
roots
in
diverse cultures. Constituting elements of the ideal are present in "poldering,"

from the introductory Dutch case. Public work involves cooperative, egalitar
ian, practical labors "across ranks" on public projects, with self-organized
governance.
Such
Dutch
created
which
threaten
work
Holland"
shared
accents
co-creation
is the quip).
ways
of
life,
Shaped
from
("God
through
the
sea
created
the
world,
the
contention
with
forces
to markets
and
states,
grounded in an understanding of human plurality, public work has politi

cal qualities which unmask sentimentalized elite discourses of citizenship.
Generalizing beyond specific contexts, I define public work as self-organized
633
Boyte
by a mix
efforts
material
Public
trasted
and
of people
or symbolic,
work,
with
others
who
common
the idea
and
problems
create
things,
value.
can
agency,
a concept
capacity,
to convey
civic
civic
expressing
civic
solve
of lasting
be usefully
of efficacious
collective
and
compared
by Xavier
developed
de
Souza
on public
action
con
Briggs
prob
lems under conditions of great diversity. Civic capacity draws on both the
liberal
"contest"
view
of democracy,
conflicts
stressing
of interest,
and
on
the "deliberative" view which asks how decisions can be more attentive to
the interplay
of different
and
vantages
how
can
people
learn
in the process.
It
also differsfrom both. Civic capacity stresses flexible, ever-changing learning

and
processes
actions
across
sectors
of government,
and
business,
civil
society
to increase capacities to effectively address public problems. It goes beyond

the governance focus on decision-making, focusing on how publics can
best
tackle
real-world
development,
from
challenges,
in a way
education
often
that reconciles
and
land
competing
to economic
use
of "empower
logics
ment," changing political and social relationships to enhance access to influ

ence, and "efficiency," stressing public results. Civic capacity has kinship
with public work in its emphasis on changing the "state of the world" itself,
but public work has a broader view of politics, making a shared life as the
context
for problem
and
solving,
of the citizen,
Public
as co-creator.
work's
concepts of politics and the citizen illuminate dysfunctions of consumer cul

ture which civic capacity theorists neglect. Thus the new public management,
which Briggs celebrates for its shiftfrom rules compliance to behavior which
produces public results, is partly constituted by consumerism, appearing in its
of "citizen
metaphor
as customer."
Similarly,
of account
treatment
Briggs'
ability slights mutual responsibility for the whole, essential to a shared life.15
Today
it is as if people
their own
decorate
and
apartments
attend
to their own
issues while the building collapses. Without a civic counterweight to the rav
of privatization,
ages
is the
government
singular
bulwark
against
strong
democracy
growing
public squalor.
I argue
that public
work
reinvigorate
the commonwealth.
consumerist
ends.
is necessary
There
to achieve
are
large
obstacles.
The
third
and
to
section
details these in societies where "work" is largely an instrumental means to

As
daunting
as these
are,
the fourth
section
points
to four
resources for making work public: historical traditions, lessons from broad
based organizing, pressures on governments to enlist civic energies, and citi
zen professionalism. Public work is a politics of productive action by diverse
agents
states,
to create
the agents
a democratic
and
architects
way
of life.
It makes
of democracy,
citizens,
suggesting
not
markets
reintegration
or
of
states and markets into civic life. It opens a path beyond the political crisis.
634
PoliticalTheory39(5)
The
Limits
of Deliberative
Politics
Deliberative democracy has the virtue of conceiving of human actors in an

open-ended
views
Most
ing.
of
process
in ways
that can
accounts
listening,
also
take
presenting
and
structures,
governance
and
arguments,
better judgments
produce
exchanging
collective
deepen
learn
the state
especially
sys
tem, as a given, impervious to deep change. Citizens' deliberative role is to

enrich
and
inform,
not
to reshape
or reconstruct.
John
who
Dryzek,
seeks
partially to de-link deliberation from the state, nonetheless reproduces a

two-tier
system
in which
state
actors
are
the main
architects
and
of
agents
crucial experiences like ending apartheid.16 Others in the deliberative camp

like John Forester, with a more co-creative view of the citizen, show the
insufficiency of deliberative politics when they reach for language to describe
what is at work in making substantial change. I argue that deliberation in all
these
cases
is too
limited
to convey
the
idea
of citizens
as
co-creators
of
the world.
Contemporary theory of deliberative politics originated in a distinction
Habermas
makes
between
Greek
democracy
and
conditions.
contemporary
For the Greeks, public judgment was conveyed by the concept of phronesis,
practical wisdom developed through public action around common issues in
the space
of the polis.
For
the public
Habermas,
in the modern
sphere
world
is qualitatively different."The theme of the modern (in contrast to the ancient)

public sphere shifted from the properly political tasks of a citizenry acting in
common
...
to the more
properly
civic
tasks
of a society
in critical
engaged
public debate."17 This distinction signals insights into new spaces of civic
freedom
as well
as his adjustments
to modern
conditions.
Habermas
describes
civic life in such spaces during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
as the language
of public
opinion
became
connected
to a vibrant
urban
public
sphere of debate and discussion rooted in lecture halls, museums, public

parks,
theaters,
meeting
houses,
opera
houses,
coffee
shops,
and
more.
These
were supported by an information infrastructure of the press, publishing

houses, lending libraries, and literary societies. In the deliberative public
sphere, older hierarchical principles of deference and ascribed social status
gave way to principles of rational discourse. Emergent professional and busi
ness groups asserted claims to a more general social and political leadership.
In public
spaces,
patterns
of communication
emerged
which
were
character
ized by norms of inclusivity, the give and take of argument, and a relatively
horizontal experience of interaction. Arguments were judged by their fit,by
pragmatic considerations of anticipated consequences, by excellence of logic
and
so forth, not mainly
by the social
status
of the speaker.18
635
Boyte
Habermas
his
develops
theory
to dispute
schools
of thought,
from
func
tionalism to structuralism and post-structuralism, which hold citizens to be

of forces
pawns
beyond
their
control.
He
that in such
charges
theories
"sub
jects who constitute their own worlds or, at a higher level, intersubjectively
share
common
lifeworlds,
drop
out."19
Habermas'
effort
to maintain
a sense
of human agency is clear, but its limits are also noteworthy. Critics have
out
pointed
the
detachment
of citizens
from
democratic
in
empowerment
Habermasian theory. For Ian Budge, Habermasian
deliberative theory is a
communicative
coercion,
"free
rationality
from
domination,
manipulation
and strategizing." Such deliberation threatens "to take the politics out of poli
tics." Budge (tongue-in-cheek?) says that this is a "university seminar" model
of deliberation.20 Aviezer Tucker sees oligarchic tendencies in both the the
ory and
practice
from
descending
in which
Habermas,
"an
educated
intellec
tual avant-garde is in charge both of identifying the common will [produced

by deliberation] and of homogenizing and re-educating the deliberating pub
lic"
to conform
to principles
of rational
discourse.21
Such limited agency stems from Habermas' assumption that the state is
largely impervious to change. Thus he criticizes Hannah Arendt as unrealistic
for imagining that "the political public sphere should be revitalized to the
point where a regenerated citizenry can, in the forms of a decentralized self
governance,
(once
again)
appropriate
bureaucratically
alienated
state power."22
Habermas sees deliberation as a communicative practice with little involve

ment of citizens in public problem solving, which occurs through the state. In
Between
Facts
and
Norms,
he
that
argues
the
capacity
of civil
society
"to
solve problems on its own is limited." The basic function of the public sphere
is to move
problems
to the formal
He
system.
proposes
that "the
communica
tive structures of the public sphere relieve the public of the burden of
decision-making."
than
"success-oriented,"
Citizens
and
should
be
"communicatively-oriented"
in deliberation
the goal
should
rather
be "influence,"
not "power." Thus, "political influence supported by public opinion is con

verted into political power only when it affects the beliefs and decisions of
authorized members of the political system (politicians, voters, etc.)." Without
translation into formal structures, citizen effortsamount to little. "The public
opinion that is worked up via democratic procedures into communicative
power cannot 'rule' of itself but can only point the use of administration power
in specific directions."23
Actual deliberative practices studied and promoted by theorists such as
David Mathews, JohnDedrick, Laura Grattan,Archon Fung, Matt Leighninger,
Lawrence Jacobs and others make few such distinctions. They mix practical
problem solving with communicative interests.24 Drawing on these, Noelle
636
McAfee distinguishes practically oriented deliberation in everyday experi

and
ence
like
groups
the
Foundation
Kettering
and
Democracy
Everyday
from the "preference-based model" of social scientists, and the "rational pro
ceduralist"
model
and
of Rawls
Habermas.25
is a deliberative
Forester
theo
rist in the practice tradition. His book The Deliberative Practitioner generates
powerful insights about deliberative practices in the messy, real-world politi
cal
environments
in which
planners
their
practice
craft.
Forester
that
argues
there is a tension in Habermas between "the critical pragmatist" and "the

theorist of justice." While the latter is "ahistorical and overidealized,"
Forester
sees
believe."26
Habermas's
Forester
of action
"sociology
calls
for
the
"removing
far more
[as]
blinkers
than many
useful
and
emotional
tone
deafhess of much of conventional social science," identifying challenges like

"traditions of thought that reduce politics to exchange, objectivity to quanti
fication,
to abstraction,
representation
and
to mere
ethics
He
prescription."27
calls for theory with a "bias toward practice." Planning should "focus on
political agency, staged by political-economic structure and culture" and be
understood
as "deliberative
that shapes
action
others'
of their
understandings
cities, their selves, and crucially their possibilities of action, for better or
worse."28
deliberative
Grounding
in practice
theory
and
"the
Freirean
after Freire,
model,"
whom
with
Forester
stories,
contrasts
model," after John Dewey,
his approach with what he calls the "Deweyan
he associates
Habermas's
critical pragmatism. The former is focused "on the ways we learn in dialogi
cal
action
together
of action"
The
by
our
testing
in a "trial-and-error
latter,
critical
informing
hunches,
"focuses
theory,
and
assumptions,
in action
reflection
on practical
on the ways
suggestions
experience."29
we
learn
in dia
logue by probing our political possibilities. . . . Whose definitions of prob

lems
and
perpetuate
solutions,
of expertise
relations
of dependency
from
Drawing
of social
theory
Forester
both,
and
of power
and
powerlessness
hopelessness?"30
proposes
that explores
learning
status,
and
a third
not only
how
model,
a "transformative
our arguments
in
change
dialogues and negotiations but how we change as well." This model "leads us
to stand the traditional fact-value hierarchy on its head. If value-free facts
would be, by definition, without value ... we can come to see that a claim
about a 'fact' is simultaneously a claim that something is important."
Storytelling
reproduce,
generate
is thus
central
strengthen
"new
groups,
to transformative
or weaken,
organizations,
learning.
the public
sense
or networks,
"can
Stories
of self."
not just
or
produce
can
They
arguments."
help
They
can "provide a source of creativity and improvisation . . . engendering new

social,
cultural
and
political
forms."
And
they
can
transform
ends,
as well
as
relationships, identities, and agendas. "Listening together, we recognize as
637
Boyte
not
important
have
may
only
ignored
inclusion
words
but issues,
or not
appreciate."31
of marginalized
us directly
testable
stresses
the
that critical
argues
and
of power
of citizens'
even
relationships,
Forester
He
voices.
to questions
reproduction
details,
hegemony,
agenda
and
setting,
and
of
"leads
pragmatism
consent,
knowledge,
we
people
importance
the con
social
relation
ships ... in which parties not only protect their autonomy but learn with one
and
another,
learn
how
can
they
act
as
together
An
well."32
from
insight
Forester here is the way planners can give "diplomatic recognition" to oth
ers' efforts. Baruch Hirschberg explained his use of the term. Diplomatic
recognition is "making people feel that you take seriously what they have to
to you
say
. . . when
other
give
you
people
'diplomatic
even
recognition,'
as
a tactic, it changes them. [And] you end up changing too . . . you, having
have
them,
recognized
Forester's
a political
veying
Forester
them
illustrates
seriously."33
of humans
of "new
capable
shows
more
the "cultural
understanding
each
storytellers,
world.
to take
approach
that I detail
turn"
as unique
and
beginnings,"
of co-creating
of deliberation
the insufficiency
con
later,
and
meaning-makers
a common
to convey
co-creation
when he seeks to describe what is going on in significantchange. Thus he warns

of the dangers
focus
of excessive
"We
on language:
face
always
the danger
that we will listen to what is said and hear words, not power; words, not judg
ment;
not
words,
and
inclusion
'mere
exclusion;
and
words'
not
problem
framing and ... strategies of practice."34 He uses the phrase "city building in
practice" to describe "the politically astute work of these practitioners and
the
and
planners
like
designers
He
them."35
action
"participatory
employs
research" to convey the richness of bottom-up stories, describing changes

that take
into
activists,
to act
ability
...
dialogue
Forester's
fragmented
clearly
analyses
their
everyday
practices
how
the talk
overemphasize
build
people
victims
this
calls
about
such
pointing
a common
"the
and
the
work."36
toward
the
life through
efforts.
on co-creation
across
of Public
Roots
Communal
A focus
He
of "deliberation"
limits
that describes
and
spectators
bodies."
is truly transformative
what
show
into doers,
renewed
"if we
that
arguing
risk missing
for a framework
into
groups
together,"
we
need
The
of done-to
"Transformation
place:
of a common
the world.37
Despite
Work
life draws
immense
variety,
labor
to communal
attention
recur
elements
certain
regularly which allow generalization of a civic ideal beyond particular com

munities. These include self-organized governance; relatively egalitarian and
cooperative
effort
collective
resources;
incentives
based
across
divisions;
adaptability,
on appeal
concerns
practical
entailing
to immediate
interests
certain
for creating
political
combined
with
shared
savvy;
and
cultivation
638
of concern
labor
for
long-term
community
elements
community
sometimes
practices
movements
popular
create
combine
foundations
or market-centered
Elements
well-being.
in languages
and
that
seek
democratization
for a civic
ideal
different
to public
approaches
of communal
frames
of larger,
than either
and
questions
cross
of power.
These
state-centered
itself.
democracy
I use the concept of public work to describe democratizing practices either

within
communities
or across
and
them,
contrast
work
public
as a democra
tizing practice with communal labor themes manipulated by elites.

An early collection edited by the Norwegian anthropologist Leif O.
Communal
Manger,
cies
about
Labor
expected
involved
increasingly
in the Sudan,
and
disintegration
in
markets
found
that
decline"
and
as
state
despite
rural
"many
economies
prophe
become
communal
structures,
labor
showed signs of "adapting to new circumstances and developing new ways of

survival."38
that are
alone,"
defines
Manger
to solve
employed
noting
that such
communal
tasks
tasks
labor
as
that the basic
are common
"formal
reciprocal
economic
units
in agricultural
groups
cannot
solve
animal
production,
husbandry, or hunting. They include reciprocal effortsto help families such

as house-building, and also creation of public goods that contribute to the
well-being of the whole community, such as well-digging. They also include
supplemental activities surrounding production, such as magical rites and
Communal
prayers.39
labor
like
practices
this
combine
practical
calculation
and bargaining with attentiveness to the reciprocities of a shared life built

over time. Manger details the careful measuring of quantities of food, drink,
and
other
in parties
payments
Crawford
Stanley
Mexican
recounts
community
the communal
labor
in New
crew
after communal
how
he
Mexico.
and
his
He
was
on his irrigation
labor
practices.
wife
settled
elected
ditch,
In Mayordomo,
in the
leader
1970s
in a
(mayordomo)
of
one
acequia,
of about
1,000
in the region, the heart of community life. Crawford describes the combina
tion of contentious bargaining with calls for attention to community welfare
in a meeting about water rights: "The sky rumbled and growled as we argued
with each other into the night and heard accusations of cheating and hogging,
waiting for the peacemakers to come forth ... to remind us again of the one
community
of which
we
all
formed
part,
whatever
our
many
differences."40
Such practical, gritty, political qualities of communal labors are often

absent in today's sentimentalized, hortatory discourses of "voluntarism" and
"service."41
Prophecies
of the disappearance
of communal
labors
are paralleled
by pre
dictions that the "commons," symbolic and material foundations for a shared
life,
as
are
"a
doomed.
resource
mas."42
"Social
Commons
shared
by
dilemmas"
is defined
a group
means
by Charlotte
Hess
of people
that
threats
to their
and
is subject
survival.
Elinor
to social
Garrett
Ostrom
dilem
Hardin
639
Boyte
shows the fatalistic cast of mind with his 1968 article "The Tragedy of the
Commons."
erodes
Hardin
as
each
defines
commons
his
pursues
own
a "free
as
interest.
resource"
"Ruin
is
the
to all
open
destination
that
toward
which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that
believes
in the freedom
at actual
looking
mons
cases
existfree
of the commons."43
of commons.
overuse,
riding,
commons
is
that
by
definition
little
and enclosure,
competition,
to
open
or no
counter
Hardin
that threats
agreeing
by
to the com
others
among
arguments to be simply mistaken: that the
they find several of Hardin's

resource;
Researchers
While
rather
all,
communication
than
exists
a managed
collective
that users
users;
among
act
only in their immediate and narrow self-interests, failing to take into account
any
collective
long-term
and
benefits;
or government
privatization
control.44
that
there
are
only
forest
Studying
two
outcomes
management,
irriga
tion, inshore fishery, and more recently the Internet, they discover that
decentralized governance with higher popular participation has advantages in
terms of efficiency, sustainability, and equity. These include incorporation of
local
knowledge;
involvement
greater
of those
who
are
and
trustworthy
respect principles of reciprocity; feedback on subtle changes in the resource;

better
lower
rules;
adapted
enforcement
and
costs;
which
redundancy,
decreases the likelihood of a system-wide failure. Decentralized systems also

have
such
disadvantages,
involvement
as uneven
by local
users;
possibilities
for "local tyrannies" and discrimination; lack of innovation and access to

scientific knowledge; and inability to cope with large common pool resources.
Ostrom
calls
not
for a mix
argues
governance
"polycentric
one
just
mixed
but
a limited
Work
multiple
number
Understanding
systems
of large-scale,
governance
in
unified
what
governance,
citizens
are able
at different
of
studies
local
she
to organize
scales."
Such
economies,
"messy
areas
metropolitan
outperformed
highlights
served
by
governments."45
elements
in sustaining
by Hess
edited
as a Commons,
Knowledge
general
authorities
but
messy,
and
where
...
governing
significantly
systems
on
be
may
systems
polycentric
of decentralized
In
the commons.
and
Ostrom,
Peter
Levine emphasizes another dimension, the public work involved in making

it. "Such work," he argues, "builds social capital, strengthens communities,
and gives people the skills they need for collective citizenship."461 argue that
public work more broadly shifts the emphasis from users to producers.
Modern
"the
haves
intellectual
versus
history
the have-nots,
includes
of enclosure,
a narrative
the elites
versus
the masses."47
the story
Recent
of
stud
ies of communal labor, replete with examples of collective activities with

public and political qualities, add to our understanding of the struggles around
the commons
by incorporating
a politicized
cultural
turn that draws
attention
640
to
humans
as
power-laden
tions
and
meaning-makers
of experience.
People's
involved
storytellers
of contesting,
process
and
negotiating,
is shaped
identity
over
in
continuing,
interpreta
integrating
by the nar
a life course
rative sense they make of their experiences, individually and collectively, by

relationships with core reference groups, and by the public meaning of their
stories, the way individual and communal life narratives are infused with
evaluative systems. Collective public narratives often sharply clash with those
of other
The
groups.48
cultural
turn
includes
of the particular
interrogation
understanding of the self associated with positivist science, connected to the

rise
of modern
states
and
the
markets,
drive
to make
societies
legible
in
pursuit of rationalization and control, and a constellation of mentalities asso

ciated with the term "mass," implying a one-directional process of homoge
nization
and
The
deracination.49
cultural
turn
deepens
of the
understanding
dimensions
symbolic
of
politics. Cultural politics, recognizing science's uses, challenges the claims

of those who maintain its sufficiency in grasping the human condition.50 An
awareness of the limits of science has been growing among scientists them
selves. Thus John Holland, a leading figure in the science of complex adap
tive systems, points out that the scientific aim is to develop a theory which
can apply across radically different contexts for predictive purposes. As

Holland says, "Model-building in science depends upon shearing away detail.
... Numbers go about as far as we can go in shearing away detail. When we
talk of numbers, nothing is left of shape, or color, or mass, or identities of an
except
the very
three
mountains
are
trast,
a "poem
object,
fact of its existence....
equivalent
aims
Three
'realizations'
at obliqueness
and
three
buses,
of the number
to engage
ambiguity
and
storks,
three."51
the
In con
reader
at
multiple levels." The result, in Holland's view, is that "the insights of poetry
far surpass
those
of science
in these
domains
...
characterized
by words
like
'beauty,' 'justice,' 'purpose,' and 'meaning.'"52 Politics, like poetry, is partly

about complex interpretative acts, concerned with meaning, purpose, justice,
and even beauty. In terms suggested by Forester, politics is the way to con
struct the meaning of "facts." Politics adds practical concerns for getting
things done in a world of plurality. In the sense of politics dating from the
Greeks,
it engages
the unique
stories
and
interests
of every
person.53
Studies of communal labors attentive to cultural politics detail a wide rep

ertoire of resistances to centralizing authorities. Cultural politics in this vein
was
pioneered
Southeast
struggle
Asia
by
James
in the
of state-making
ety that could
C.
1960s
be understood
Scott,
and
in early
before
whose
1970s
studies
led
modern
it was
him
Europe
possible
of peasant
resistance
to see
parallels
between
...
to create
a legible
to intervene"
and
"the
in
"the
soci
way
641
Boyte
the World Bank is changing the Third World nowadays."54 Tad Mutersbaugh
cultural
employs
to show
politics
the importance
of communal
labors
in an
indigenous Oaxacan village in Mexico facing dilemmas of labor migration.

He emphasizes power "that is not exercised mechanically but within a politi
cal
culture
that includes
negotiation,
contestation
cooperation,
and
resistance
as multiple modes by which collective tensions may be resolved," detailing

how communal labor practices are associated with wide participation in gov
ernance.
He
also
demonstrates
how
villagers
communal
develop
in
agency
the face of threats like migration.55 "Villagers protect local institutional

integrityby managing migration timing via sanctions, by producing a sense
of community belonging, and by constructing community identification
social
through
such
practices
as communal
labor."56
Communal labors take on added public dimensions when employed by

larger social and political movements. Thus, Tanya Korovkin shows how
norms
of
Otavalo
communal
labor
communities
in the
powers
and modern
called
Ecuadorian
elements
resources
Andes.
in adaptive
have
minga
as political
These
used
she calls
by
indigenous
against
communities
what
ways,
been
in struggles
centralizing
combined
traditional
essentialism."57
"strategic
Minga, unpaid communal work that effected community-wide improvements

like
water
norms
egalitarian
nance.
Such
labor
informed
Rwanda,
by
the
and
"evoked
movement
labor
concept
in Kenya.
gover
assemblies
cam
cry of indigenous
of commu
as the famous
After
has
and
of their
themes
such
of umuganda
embodying
as part
generalized
for independence,
anticolonial
the communal
communal
is a rallying
Minga
Elsewhere,
process,
decentralized
leaders
indigenous
identity."58
movements
and
at
repeatedly
the region.59
to this
reciprocity
by the new
ethnic
central
proved
exchange
are
a new
across
harambee
schools
meetings
to build
communities
nal
of
norms
province-wide
paign
and
systems
the
been
use
of
in
genocide
used
in a suc
cessful, if still fragile, effortto bridge the divisions between Hutu and Tutsi.60
Public work themes are also used explicitly to champion "citizen-centered
democracy"
against
statist
approaches.
In 2006,
Omano
an African
Edigheji,
theorist, challenged South African leaders in a high-level presidential semi

nar
to return
to a view
in which
of democracy
citizens,
not
the
state,
are
foundational agents. He drew on "cooperative work and deliberative tradi

tions bringing people together [across differences]," building on a nationwide
discussion organized by Idasa in 2004, ten years after the 1994 election,
which raised civic agency and public work and resurfaced the immense popu
lar struggle
In contrast
ating
themes
of the
1980s.61
to democratic
of communal
usages,
labor
there
to serve
are many
their
own
cases
of elites'
ends.
Otavalo
appropri
communi
ties explicitly contrast minga with faena, conscripted collective labor on
642
public projects organized by colonial elites. Jacqueline Nzisabira, a Burundian

with Idasa, the African democracy institute, describes how harambee radi
cally changed meaning when it became a top-down practice invoked by
politicians after independence, often associated with bribery and payoffs.
Similarly, in her native Burundi, communal labors, known as ibikorwa
underwent
rusangi,
I was
"When
change.
work
up collective
growing
was
used
to cultivate land in Burundi," Nzisabira describes. "Such labors empowered

and
people
a stronger
created
observes,
"There
has
cess.
work
shifts
meaning
from the community."62
There
The
been
sense
In
of community."
recent
for the government
a tendency
when
it is state
are echoes
rather
directed,
of such
the pro
than
coming
in societies
dynamics
she
years,
to control
of the
North Atlantic arc, where elites employ sentimental discourses of citizenship

to mask other political agendas. The term "voluntarism" acquired general
uses associated with budget cutbacks of Richard Nixon.63 George Bush built
his firstinaugural address around citizenship, which he equated with service.
David Cameron in Britain combines calls for volunteerism with sharp gov
ernment
reductions.64
Who
owns
and
controls
the symbols
and
practices
of generalized
commu
nal labor appears as a central question in such cases. The question highlights
the importance of the theory building of the Workshop on Political Theory
and
Public
on polycentric
Policy
which
governance
focuses
on questions
of
power, authority, and collective accountability.65 Its design principles for

the commons
governing
of people
affected
for
community
local
include
to participate
rules
well
matched
in changing
decision
rules,
and
making,
to local
locally
needs,
capacities
by external
respect
imposed
powers
sanctions
for
breaking the rules. Such principles are useful in analyzing the obstacles to
public work in modern societies.
Obstacles
Contemporary
to
Public
Work
Public work as a normative ideal of citizenship, combining self-organized

and
governance
labors
cooperative
across
differences
to solve
and
problems
create collective resources, prompts imaginings of democracy in which citi

zens
take
makers
centerstage.
and
storytellers,
I propose
public
that
humans
by understanding
work
also
suggests
pathways
as
meaning
toward
the
reintegration of corporate and governmental institutions into civic life.

Bureaucracies
system
plex
of every
world,
human
structures
communities,
sort
can
be
reimagined
beyond
change.
products
of human
They
differently
can
labors
be
which
than
reconceived
Habermas's
as
com
can be reconstructed
in more democratic ways by public work. Yet daunting obstacles arise from
the evisceration of work's public dimensions.
643
8 oyte
Susan Faludi dramatized work's public decline in Stiffed,exploring chang

ing identities of men, from African American shipyard workers to television
executives
where
and
male
consumer
athletes.
worth
Men
With
culture."
at century's
is measured
only
end
by
measures
productive
"in
were
an unfamiliar
world
in a celebrity-driven
participation
of successsupporting
a family,
contributing to the community, helping to build the nationin shards, men

resembled Betty Friedan's "trapped housewives" of the 1960s, without words
to name
discontents
of a culture
"drained
of context,
saturated
with
a com
petitive individualism that has been robbed of craft or utility and ruled by
commercial
gest,
values
that revolve
around
who
has
the most,
the best,
the big
the fastest."66
Arriving at such a condition took decades. Matthew Crawford, in Shop

Class
as
Soul
Craft,
the
"attentiveness,"
champions
of "seeing
importance
oneself in the world" through one's products, and engaging in "work that is
genuinely useful."67 Skilled labor, in his view, cultivates intellectual and
manual
"a
dexterity,
encounter
systematic
with
the
material
world
that
requires thought."68 Such qualitiesengagement with the world, intellectual

and manual capacities developed through self-directed effort,and a sense of
the consequentiality of one's effortall are associated with the ideal of pub
lic work, but they have radically eroded.
skilled
useful,
Using
work
as
his
through which consequentiality

became
increasingly
eroding
the agency
degraded,
detaching
of workers
Crawford
standard,
of work became
of all
the
traces
"manual"
from
Scientific
management
kinds.
process
out as work
hollowed
"mental"
labor,
replaced
skilled labor with centralized processes. Self-directed activities were "dis

solved
or
Frederick
brain
work
abstracted
into
Winslow
Taylor,
then
scientific
be removed
should
and
parts
reconstituted
management
from
the shop
put it, "All
guru,
and
a processAs
as
possible
in the planning
centered
or
laying out department."69 Spiced with his own experiences in mind-numbing

"intellectual
celebrated
Crawford
work,"
as
the "new
shows
knowledge
how
white
economy,"
collar
has
and
intellectual
become
subjected
labor,
to the
same logic. "The time-and-motion study [of Taylor] has become a time-and
thought study," he writes. "To build an expert system, a living expert is
debriefed and then cloned by a knowledge engineer.... Eventually hundreds
or thousands
gram
that
of rules
can
of thumb
'make
decisions'
are
The
fed into the computer.

or
'draw
conclusions'
result
is a pro
heuristically."70
Consumerism formed a key strategy to get workers to go along with the deg
radation of work. "It was learned that the only way to get [workers] to work
harder
was
to play
For this purpose,

under
scientific
upon
the imagination,
"consumption,
managementthe
no less
stimulating
than production,
management
new
needs
needed
and
wants."
to be brought
of desire."71
644
Parallel
erosion
of self-governance
occurred
in public
where
institutions,
centralizing dynamics were fed not by profit-seeking but by goals of distribu

tive justice, equity, and protection of rights, implemented through rules
which
substitute
for local
in Wage
Nelson,
discretion.
Justice:
For
Sara
instance,
Worth
Comparable
and
M.
Evans
the Paradox
and
Barbara
of Technocratic
Reform, studied implementation of legislation in Minnesota to redress wage

inequities between men and women. They find that equalizing wages was
accomplished
effects
zens
workers
is a focus
processes
which had the unintended
through centralizing processes
of making
as customers
increasingly
on "outcome
and
government
The
powerless.72
measures"
accompanied
as service
agencies
of such
endpoint
citi
by redefining
providers.73
Associational
life has similarly been subject to instrumentalization in

which
ways
greatly complicate hopes for civil society as "a place for us," a
site of self-directed civic activity.74Civic practices and identities of the citizen
doctor
or
citizen-teacher
or
life, rooting
community
horizontal
relations
work
professional
between
once
citizen-pastor
lent
in local
cultures,
and
professionals
public
other
to
meanings
creating
citizens.
relatively
These
roots
radically eroded, as Thomas Bender has detailed, as professional education

lost connections
to the life, history,
and
cultures
of places.75
Unions,
nonprof
its, schools, and congregations turned from civic centers to service providers.
As Craig
Dykstra
observes
about
life, quoting
congregational
Petersen,
Eugene
"[Pastors] are preoccupied with . . . how to keep the customers happy, how
to lure
customers
from
competitors
of progressive
politics
away
down
the
how
street,
to package
the goods."76
Most
strands
A
dynamics.
of "mass
century
politics"
both
reflect
and
exacerbate
universal
stressing
such
distribu
claims,
tive justice, individual rights, and an existentially uprooted view of the citi
zen
has
come
to shape
progressive
approaches
to change.77
Mass
is
politics
based on a consumer conception of the person as concerned with individual

appetites and needs. As Michael Sandel puts it, "A politics based on con
sumer identities . . . asks how bestmost fully, or fairly, or efficiently to
satisfy [needs and wants]."78 It is closely tied to top-down mobilizing tech
niques like the door-to-door canvass and internetmobilizations, using a sim
plified script of good versus evil to rally large numbers of people, in which
experts
design
Democrats,
both
to groups
marketing
and
message
consultants
following
of voters
defined
method.79
such
as
In
Mark
by consumer
electoral
Penn,
politics,
frame
liberal
elections
as
niches.80
All these dynamics erode the public dimensions of workself-organized

governance,
creators
connections
of their
to communities,
environments.
More,
there
understandings
is scant
of persons
theoretical
as
literature
co
with
645
Boyte
which to challenge the erosion of work's public dimensions. As Judith Shklar

"The
observes,
of antiquity
philosophers
regarded
and
productive
commer
cial work as so deeply degrading that it made a man unfit for citizenship."81
With exceptions like Dewey, Weil, and Miroslav Volf,82 most political theo
rists continue
Yet
to separate
theoretical
to realm
active
resources
of necessity,
from
citizenship
do exist.
not freedom,
Arendt
work.
despite
her consignment
provides
the valuable
Here,
of labor
of
concept
world-building. In particular, as Linda Zerilli emphasizes, "Foregrounded in

Arendt's
account
world....
What
is related
as
of action
Arendt
is something
calls
to . . . the human
to affairs
which
The
together."83
those
among
as
challenge,
about
Zerilli
who
or the earth
of human
inhabit
the
is to
suggests,
than
the subject
is not nature
the fabrication
artifact,
on
go
less
the 'world'
about
the
as such
but
as well
hands,
man-made
shift
the
world
of
concept
Arendtian world-building from fleeting moments found in revolutionary

times
other
to everyday,
resources
Work
Making
I emphasize
four
labors
quotidian
for this task,
for all
that
build
a common
world.
are
There
its obstacles.
More
Public
resources
for
spreading
work
public
in
contemporary
society. These include powerful histories of the democratic meanings of

work; approaches to organizing which educate for citizenship; growing
in government
imperatives
gies
in new
reintegrate
ways;
and
to produce
practice
and
experts
and
theory
with
expertise
results
public
that enlist
of citizen
other
ways
public
ener
that
professionalism
of
knowing
and
with
other citizens.
1. In English history, village collective labors that sustained common
lands,
footpaths,
of common
buildings
daily
regular
forests,
and
like
schooling
fishing
the
village
in rough,
areas,
as well
church,
grassroots
as maintenance
to peasantry
gave
democracy,
even
under
feudalism. Immigrants to America brought such traditions with
them,
infusing
concepts
of the commonwealth
and
collective
labors
which build it with political vitality.84Work generally took on pub

lic and civic meanings. As Shklar put it, "a vision of economic inde
as the ethical basis of democratic citizenship took
pendence ...
the
place
of an
outmoded
notion
of public
virtue."85
Conceptions
of the civic and democratic meanings of work continued well into

the twentieth century. Thus the late Vice President Hubert Hum
phrey, shaped by the populist movements of the 1930s, championed
a decentralized economy in a Senate debate in 1952. Humphrey
646
that
declared
the
of small
purpose
business
not
was
cheap
prices
but survival of independent producers who were the foundation of

As
democracy.
he
"Do
said,
we
want
an
where
America
the
eco
nomic market place is filled with a few Frankensteins and giants? Or

do we
of
want
small
who
where
an America
can
stand
there
are
on their own
thousands
feet and
talk
aback
thousands
upon
and
landholders
to their
Government
businesses,
independent
entrepreneurs,
or anyone else?" For Humphrey, this concept of property was tied

to citizens
as the foundational
agents
Preamble
to the
with
Constitution
view
Humphrey's
of
of democracy,
its focus
decentralized
on
embodied
"we
economy
the
in the
people."86
the
represented
revival, not simply survival, of the civic meanings of work. Studies

such as Michael Denning's Cultural Front and Lary May's The Big
Tomorrow
writers
have
and
shown
artists,
how
"cultural
scholars,
workers,"
and
educators,
screen
journalists,
others,
complemented
union and community organizing efforts.87United by goals includ

ing the defeat of fascism, the pursuit of economic and racial justice,
and
the
defense
the
change
of democracy,
and
symbols
of the
the individualist, WASP-oriented,

to a more
cooperative,
democracy
In parallel
racially
that emphasized
some
American
to
success
dream
from
consumerist ideal of the 1920s

and
pluralist
work
productive
the intellectual
fashion,
with
sought
they
narratives
historian
vision
egalitarian
with
Scott
public
Peters
of
meaning.
unearthed
"prophetic counter-narrative" in higher education, with roots in land

grant colleges and universities, in which faculty, staff and students
worked in sustained, egalitarian partnerships with communities,
using
2.
the language
Practices
and
of public
methods
work
to describe
of "broad-based
their efforts.88
counter
organizing"
mass
politics with an understanding that each person is a unique and free

political agent. They cultivate a sense of "the public person" akin
to what
Canovan
Margaret
has
called
political
sobriety,
"an
excep
tional degree of political realism and common sense, together with

a remarkable capacity to exercise self-restraintand put shared long
term
interests
above
private
interests
and
short-term
impulses."89
Broad-based
community organizations pursue social, racial, and

economic justice in ways highly attentive to political and civic edu
cation.90
and
Organizers
sometimes
refer
often
use
to their
the concept
efforts
across
of citizens
communities
as co-creators
as
"public
work." As Gerald Taylor, an architect of this kind of organizing,

put it, "thinking about organizing as public work helps people to
understand
themselves
as builders
of cities."91
647
Boyte
Drawing out the differentmeanings of "public" in "public work,"

one
can
lic
detail
work
work
of publics,
I describe
purposes.
in public,
broad-based
work
and
for
pub
as
vivid
efforts
organizing
illustrations of the firsttwo dimensions. It involves work of a public,

a diverse
people
members
to understand
ferent
what
income,
are
learn
who
and
Their
"one-on-ones."
These
together.
stories
or partisan
cultural,
religious,
called
to work
the motivations
groups
teach
of others
of dif
through
backgrounds
efforts
also
work
generate
in
public, making visible different, sometimes conflicting, interests,

teaching how to use these conflicts for public purposes. Arendt is
widely read in these groups partly because their action is informed
by the
of a public
concept
arena
based
on
akin
difference,
to her
public space of plurality. In a public arena, people operate on prin

such
ciples
as
respect,
and
recognition,
mutual
not
accountability,
on the basis of "private principles" like loyalty, intimacy, and hope

for nurturance.
of diverse
learn
Citizens
"self-interests"
to work
(not
together
narrow
on public
issues
but core
selfishness
out
passions
and relationships). They solve problems, win victories for disadvan

taged groups, and create public things with those with whom they
may disagree, or whom they may even dislike. Such activity often
broaden
toward
interests
people's
In organizing,
experience
people
for the whole."'2
"standing
power
to Arendt's
similar
con
cept, which she contrasts with strength,an individual property; with

force,
which
based
on coercion.
in concert
she
on
saw
as a natural
Power,
some
political
and
phenomenon;
for Arendt,
project.
emerges
with
It is always
violence,
humans
from
"a
power
acting
poten
tial and not an unchangeable, measurable and reliable entity like

force
or strength
together
of power
ing
and
also
everyday
. . . [it]
vanishes
its rare
emphasizes
politics.94
springs
the moment
As
Mary
up
between
men
they disperse"93
they
observes,
act
concept
moments,
performative
Dietz
when
Arendt's
neglect
Arendt's
horror
of modern instrumentalization, with its "distortion of all things into

means for the pursuit of allegedly higher ends," led her to weaken
the resources
of her public
realm
theory
for "carrying
out.
. . pur
poses in the very world it strives to vitalize."95 In broad-based orga

nizing, participants add purposeful, everyday activity to Arendtian
power. They seek to avoid instrumentalization by holding in bal
ance "the world as it is" and "the world as it should be," combining
a focus on political education with efforts to achieve benefits for
disadvantaged
groups.
The
agent
in organizing
combines
a strategic
assessment of social and political power with attention to building
648
public relationships across differences.96 Taylor calls this a shift

from
to governance."
"protest
how
learning
and
negotiate
to be
in these
Governance,
he
accountable,"
It means
compromise.
"It
says.
"means
terms,
means
to
able
being
that people
understanding
are
not necessarily evil because they have differentinterests or ways of

looking at the world."97 Similarly, Rom Coles, a political theorist
long active in such organizations, argues that organizing "inflects

[diverse] traditions in light of a radical democratic ethos that accents
inclusion, dialogue, receptivity, equality, difference, a taste for
ambiguity, patient discernment, and an affirmation that political

relationships centrally involve ongoing tension, some compromise,
and humility in the face of disagreement."98
Broad-based
community
of "associative
model
fit
groups
with
This
democracy."
Piotr
"focuses
Perczynski's
on the process
of
societal change rather than aiming towards a pre-defined goal." Per

czynaki calls for active citizenship "realized by actually practicing
it."99 He emphasizes groups with participatory democratic qualities
and
also
welfare
with
some
of the
"social
larger
element"
society
that cultivates
their
beyond
concern
ranks.
Such
for the
are
groups
"schools for citizenship."100 The limit of such groups from the van
tage of participatory democracy is that their goals, achieving justice
and
Saul
while
citizens,
developing
democratization
of society.
often
Alinsky,
seen
do
important,
here
They
reflect
as the architect
not
include
a general
the fatalism
of broad-based
of the late
organizing.
Alinsky, part of the populist movement of the 1930s, conveyed its

expansive hopes for democratic change in his first book, Reveille
for
Radicals.
Organizers
the
By
saw
end
of his
themselves
he
life,
going
was
far beyond
far more
his
cynical.101
cynicism
about
human motivations after his death in 1972, but they accepted his
view that the larger society could not be changed.102 The challenge
for broader democratization is to integrate organizing themes of
action "by" publics and action "in" public with multiple kinds of
work infused with democratic purpose.
3.
third
resource
for public
work's
translation
across
contexts
is
pressure from the increasing complexity and scale of problems in

modern societies to tap new sources of civic energy and talent.
Current
ernment"
government
and
initiatives
"catalytic
like
governance"
"empowered
show
participatory
countertrends
gov
to
the
customer service paradigm, while differing also from sentimental

ized citizenship. They seek to develop more reciprocal, egalitarian,
649
Boyte
cooperative
these
between
partnerships
of government
are
to accomplish
spurred
professional
the
by
failure
of corrections
department
servants
and
of conventional
outside
that
observes
and
bureaucratic
for a New
that he was
argued
citizens
A1 Dzur
tasks.
an administrator
Thus,
practices.
civil
public
state
England
inefficiency
"building
into the system" by involving extensive lay citizen participation.

Dzur points to the value of such "inefficiency": lay citizens, less
attentive
and
to rules
counter
may
procedures,
flaws
such
as "rigid
ity in the face of rule obsolescence and inattentiveness to individual

case complexity." In the case of juries, citizen "irrationality" may
"foster
that balances
reflexivity
cedural
with
rationality
and judges'
courts
concern
for
bias
substantive
toward
pro
rationality."103
Carmen Sirianni details initiatives within government, from local

levels to federal agencies, which integrate themes of broad based
in order
organizing
with
to generate
more
productive,
collaborative
work
citizens.104
4. Finally, addressing public problems effectively prompts attention

to the civic dimensions of professions, where professionals learn
to work with other citizens, rather on them or for them. Theoreti
cal foundations of civic professionalism found early expression in
the work
who
of Dewey,
stressed
of "all
dimensions
the educative
callings [and] occupations."105 William Sullivan and Dzur have fur

ther developed theory of civic professionalism. Sullivan identifies
a central
colonial
in professionalism
tension
period,
linked
cializationbroadly
a project
for enhancing
which
emphasis
to a utilitarian
efficiency
States
in the United
a technical
"between
and
the
spe
as
of society
conception
individual
since
stresses
satisfactionand
a sense of professional mission which has insisted upon the promi

nence
of the ethical
and
civic
dimension
Dzur
of the enterprise."106
details ways in which professionals' work can be catalytic and ener

gizing
lomatic
when
they
recognition.
"step
He
back"
and
chronicles
practice
what
democratic
Forester
trends
called
dip
in the areas
of
medicine, law, the movement against domestic violence, and else

where that enhance the authority and efficacy of lay citizens, adding
multiple cases of what I call public work.107 William Doherty and
his colleagues at the Citizen Professional Center have pioneered in
the practices and theory of such citizen professionalism. Adapting

broad-based organizing practices and public work concepts to family
and health professions, their citizen professional model begins with
the premise
that
solving
complex
problems
requires
many
sources
650
and
of knowledge,
"the
for improving
resource
untapped
greatest
health and social well being is the knowledge, wisdom, and energy
of individuals, families, and communities who face challenging
issues in their everyday lives." The Citizen Professional Center has
multiple
generated
of families
to tame
movements
suburban
including
partnerships
working
consumerist
overscheduled,
an
lives;
African American Citizen Fathers Project seeking to foster posi

tive fathering models and practices; a new project with Hennepin
to change
County
civil
service
into
practices
and
work;
public
pilot with Health Partners Como Clinic, called the Citizen Health
Care Home, which stresses personal and family responsibility for
one's own health and opportunities for patient leadership develop
ment
and
for health.KIS
co-responsibility
A fledgling higher education movement for engagement with communi

ties
and
public
larger
democracy
The
movement
efforts at the College
neering
who
the
work.'09
conceived
offers
an
draws
on organizing
of St. Catherine
of the college
as
terrain
expanding
Kari
and
and
of
the pio
like
experiences
by Nan
a community
for concepts
her colleagues,
organized
to "make
its
work more public." Civic engagement is proving a fertile ground for initia
tives based on public work, such as Public Achievement, a young people's
citizenship education effort now in hundreds of communities in more than
a dozen
countries.
universities,
American
In a time
is taking
colleges
root
through
in a number
partnership
of colleges,
called
the
Project."0
A Return
of concern
and
Achievement
community
Democracy
Conclusion:
culture
Public
and
on
the
on the right about
to "We
left about
the
People"
the public
the overreach
squalor
of government
of a marketplace
technocrats,
pub
lic work holds potential to break the impasse. It returns to "we the people"
as co-creators of a democratic society. This is not simply a normative idea;
it also is descriptivecivic agency is emerging across the world.11' But there
is nothing simple about this return. The effortcontends not only with formi
dable
structural
but also
impediments
intellectual
ones.
The question posed in 1906 by the German socialist Werner Sombart,

"Why is there no socialism in the United States?" preoccupying scholars and
political
stream
progressives
discussion
through
in 2009
when
the
twentieth
the late
Tony
century,
reappeared
Judt used
it in a lecture
in main
at New
York University to launch a discussion about growing inequality and public
651
Boyte
He
squalor.112
that social
argued
From
degradation.
is the only
democracy
the vantage
of public
work,
alternative
on what
focusing
to public
is "missing"
in American politics eclipses the alternative based on citizen agency. This

has
approach
been
mainstream
as
by way
of contrast,
sustain
it through
ments
themes
populist
In populism
about
the commons
and
labors,
now
caricatured
with
a democratic
when
they
the development
in the
cast,
make
help
of popular
and
agency
theme.113
citizen-
mainstream
reception
care
people
between
gap
with
of grievance.
their public
is a constituting
The
associated
a politics
of the Obama
and
state-centered
progressive
with
campaign,
was
politics
opinion
its civic
dramatized
leaders
gave
agency
message
by the
to the populist
of "yes
ele
we
can,"
accompanied by the organizing dimensions of the field operation.114Progressive

opinion
either
volume
of essays
these
ignored
or decried
them
by Theda
coordinated
as sentimental
and
Skocpol
nonsense.
Lawrence
A recent
Jacobs
on the
firsttwo years of the Obama presidency, Reaching for a New Deal, illustrates
the former. Sophisticated about the policy process, the Washington political
environment,
of a fragmented,
challenges
24/7
news
and
cycle,
daunting
oppo
sition, the scholars nonetheless write as if the only significant agents of politics
are politicians, media, and government instrumentalities. The extended intro
duction by Skocpol and Jacobs has no reference to civic agency ideas and
of the 2008
practices
and
campaign
dramatically
of
the movements
neglects
the 1930s which shaped the New Deal.115 Writing afterthe election in The New
Yorker,
disingenuous.
from
time
was
Packer
George
the
"Throughout
the bottom
I heard
he seemed
him
up rather
tell a crowd,
to be saying
Obama
campaign,
than
from
'This
the top
has
been
the opposite."
In Packer's
for solutionsnow
stand.""6
just
we
"yes
can"
of change
spoke
Packer.
said
down,"
never
saw
Packer
contemptuous.
simply
about
view
what
coming
"But
it's
me;
every
about
people
as
you'
voted
for in the election was the "ground on which the majority of Americans
looking
Many
to government
progressives
a "libertarian
conservatives
caricature
in the words
mob"
of Mark
as simply
Lilla.117
selfish
In fact
individualists
they
hold
a more
complex set of beliefs, including reaction against technocratic politics, which

they see as devaluing diverse kinds of knowledge and suppressing human
agency.118
once
intellectuals
this, conservative
To counter
at the center
of populist
have
appropriated
in their assertions
movements,
"work,"
that government
is undermining people's self-directed action. Thus Arthur Brooks, president

of the American
Institute,
Enterprise
abortion"
but
country's
future.
rather
organized
around
"a
new
In one,
the
portrays
"not
between
two
struggle
America
principles
will
continue
of free
a fight over
competing
to be
guns,
visions
an exceptional
enterpriselimited
gays
or
of the
nation
government,
652
reliance
on
Brooks
argues
that this vision
of happiness
the pursuit
and
entrepreneurship
determined
rewards
is not about
success.
earned
through
market
by
"Earned
forces."
what
rich but about
getting
he calls
is the cre
success
ation of value in our lives or in the lives of others. Earned success is the stuff
of entrepreneurs
who
seek
value
hard
innovation,
through
and
work,
passion.
Earned success is what parents feel when their children do wonderful things,
what
social
they
create
innovators
feel
when
they
of beauty."119
something
artists
what
lives,
change
The
is state-centered.
other
feel
when
themes
Such
translate into Tea Party slogans which depict America in an epic struggle
between
"makers"
For
those
of growing
"takers."
the prospect
about
and
inequalities
like
ments,
and
alarmed
anti-government
of dismantling
selling-off
frenzy
Brooks'
argu
things
worse.
to make
threaten
generally,
in a time
government
of the commonwealth,
But progressive politics which accuses citizens of being fearful, prejudiced,

and
and
myopic
in ever
demands
more
terms
strident
social
democratic-style
state intervention offers no effective alternative. The times call for a politics
which
takes
back
"work"
from
those
who
dismantle
would
and
government
privatize the commonwealth. This is a politics which democratizes gover

nance
it recognizes
while
and
the essential
vital
roles
of government,
values
the public conditions and purposes of work, and develops civic agency. It is
the constructive politics of public work.
Acknowledgment
I thank Mary
Dietz
two anonymous
and
work,
Institute
2010
citizens
of these
William
Ostrom,
Barker,
Matthew
Finally,
Leighninger,
I appreciate
port on these
Declaration
The
Coles,
author(s)
authorship,
Roudy
support
Driven
conference
Taylor,
Hildreth,
Brian
and
from the Kettering
agency,
initiative
Change"
and feedback
Dzur,
Lansing
Foundation
of the
Foundation
Paul
Thelen,
public
on my pre
Elinor
especially
Peter Vale,
David
Murphy,
Michael
to thank
of
Democracy
and the Kettering
I want
Albert
of civic
of the American
Africa;
deliberation."
Peter Levine,
help, and the comments
and 2010;
retreat in South
Gerald
Schambra,
Rom
in 2008
at the 2010
annual
editorial
for discussions
grateful
in the Hague
themes
Idasa
for splendid
in the "Civic
on "democratizing
workshop
Derek
Studies
the 2010
Strom
I am also
as co-creators
of Social
sentations
Project;
and Marie
reviewers.
Graham,
Maria
Avila,
for their feedback.
for ongoing
research
sup
topics.
of Conflicting
declared
Interests
no potential
and/or publication
conflicts
of interest with respect
to the research,
of this article.
653
8 oyte
Funding
The author(s)
cation
received
no financial
for the research,
support
and/or publi
authorship,
of this article.
Notes
1. "Polder,"
Wikipedia,
trends. Boyte
marketizing
2.
Simone
a Dutch
Weil,
educational
interview
with Leenhouts,
and Liberty
Oppression
uses
leader,
(Amherst:
June
(accessed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polder
Jos Leenhouts,
2010).
Amsterdam.
16, 2010,
May
28,
to counter
"poldering"
of Massachusetts,
University
1973), 101.
3. Alaine
Touraine
4.
Jeffrey D. Hilmer,
Science
5.
in Eric
"The
32 (March
Carole
Pateman,
York:
1970);
Theory
(Cambridge:
Beyond
Adversary
1980);
Wretched
Paulo
Freire, Pedagogy
Biko,
I Write What I Like (New
6. Benjamin
Reshaping
7. James
Human
C.
Scott,
8. The II Manifesto
See
Have
Johnson,
Douglas
McWorld:
(New
How
York:
Continuum,
Haven:
Fate,"
Press,
Press,
1977);
1961);
Stephen
1986).
and
Tribalism
Are
1995).
Certain
Yale
Schemes
University
to democratize
"Althusser's
Grove
Globalism
House,
Democracy:
of California
York:
and Row,
Cambridge
Democracy
Strong
(New
How
Random
the need
Barber,
University
Harper
a State:
Failed
included
(New
York:
York:
Like
Seeing
Condition
(Berkeley:
of the Earth
versus
the World (New
R.
Benjamin
of the Oppressed
Jihad
Barber,
New Political
Theory,"
and Democratic
for a New Age
Fanon,
Democratic
Jane J. Mansbridge,
Books,
Politics
Frantz
1984);
2007
Abacus,
(London:
at 43.
43-63,
Participation
Basic
Participatory
State of Participatory
2010):
Press,
University
(New
Revolutionaries
Hobsbawm,
316.
edition),
to Improve
Press,
the
1998).
the left as well as the society.
London
Review
of Books
3, no.
(1981): 13-15.
9. Archon
erative
Fung,
"Deliberation
before
in an Unjust
Democracy
the Revolution:
World,"
Toward
Political
Theory,
an Ethics
of Delib
no.
3 (2005):
33.
397-419.
10.
Between
Jiirgen Habermas,
Theory
of Law
and
Facts
and Democracy
Norms:
(Cambridge,
MA:
Contributions
MIT
Press,
to a Discourse
1998),
324.
11. Ibid., 298.

12.
Hilmer,
"State
of Participatory
see Harry C. Boyte,

Foundation
13.
Press,
See John Keane,
Civic Agency
Democratic
Theory,"
55-63.
and the Cult of the Expert
On civic
(Dayton:
agency,
Kettering
2009).
The Life and Death
of Democracy
(London:
Simon
& Schuster
UK, 2009).
654
14.
ican
Journal
in crucial
histories.
Christianity
and
See
Xavier
footnotes
de
Sousa
Communities
the World
and Analgesia,"
Agonism
Habermas,
Political
MIT
Luke
Breth
of the Public
Capacity
in
on new
2009);
Alternatives
Societies:
33, no. 2 (2005):
Theory
Civic
Press,
306-7.
in Divided
Democracy
Transformation
of
popular
Wiley-Blackwell,
Solving:
MA:
(Cambridge,
on accountability,
36-37;
about
see
of agency,
(London:
Problem
as
Democracy
"Deliberative
in amnesia
politics
Politics
Amer
neglect
115.
16, 61, 77,
around
John S. Dryzek,
For a kindred
Is Agcncy"
962-1023.Theoretical
finds counterparts
Contemporary
Briggs,
management,
public
17.
in their essay,
erton,
2010)
16.
103, no. 4 (1998):
agency
"What
and Ann Mische,
Emirbayer
of Sociology
described
agency,
15.
see Mustafa
On agency,
MA:
(Cambridge,
Sphere
to
218-42.
MIT
Press,
1989), 52.
18. Ibid., 25-26.
19.
Jiirgcn Habermas,
20.
Ian
Budge,
tion, ed. Michael

21.
Aviezer
Tucker,
Political
Habermas,
Between
23.
Ibid.,
362,
24.
David
359,
363,
and Harold
371,
Politics
Mathews,
(Champaign:
Facts
25.
Noelle
McAfee,
John Forester,
Processes
27.
200.
in Delibera
Tendencies
at 127.
297.
300.
for
People:
a Responsible
Finding
Press,
Deliberation
"Three
and
the Campus,
Models
18, no.
Public
John Dedrick,
1999);
the Work of Higher

and the Community
MA:
"Exploring
Techniques,
of Democratic
1 (2004):
Deliberative
(Cambridge,
John Forester,
tunities,
127-47,
political
and associa
Laura
Voice
Grattan,
Education:
(Dayton:
Inno
Kettering
Press, 2008).
lative Philosophy
26.
56 (2008):
and Norms,
vations for the Classroom,

Foundation
Oligarchic
Democracy:
Studies
democracyplus
representation
2000),
Routledge,
of Illinois
University
Dientsfrey,
47.
direct
Deliberation,
(London:
"Pre-emptive
22.
versus
Innovation:
Saward
tive Democracy,"
and Norms,
democracy
in Democratic
parties!,"
Facts
Between
"Deliberative
Practitioner:
MIT
Urban
Deliberation,"
Journal
of Specu
44-59.
Encouraging
Press,
1999),
Practice
and Challenges,"
Participatory
Planning
203-4.
in a Democratising
Development
Southern
Society:
Africa
Oppor
23, no. 5
(2006): 569-86, at 572.

28.
Forester,
Deliberative
Practitioner,
6.
29. Ibid., 129-30.

30.
Ibid.,
130.
31. Ibid., 130, 133, 137, 138, 139, 143.

32. Ibid., 207.
33. Ibid., 108-9.
655
Boyte
34.
37.
Ibid.,
35. Ibid., 111.

36. Ibid., 115, 116, 123.
37.
Here
are several
isiZulu,
Sudan,
meitheal
huan gong
ga-du-gi
advisor
to Chief
policy
Peter Vale
2010;
the widely
used
view
with Vale,
Leif
O.
argues
that communal
term ubuntu,
Grahamstown,
in Asia,
argued
that Ga-du-gi
email
correspondence,
has been
meaning
humanity.
July 16,
may be the experiential

common
in
Conduff,
Stephanie
of
ground
inter
Boyte
July 19, 2010.
S.A.,
Communal
ed.,
labors
chawa\
kimoja
and Malaysia);
(English);
and self-sufficiency,
in the
(Finland);
(Indonesia
barn-raising
of the Cherokee,
kidole
in
letsema;
dibanisani;
talkoot
(Norway),
gotong-royoung
African
Manger,
Bergen,
Smith
in Sesotho,
in Xhosa,
in Swahili,
coast,
dugnad
(Cherokee);
of pride
symbol
African
ture (Korea),
(China),
Africa
gemeenskapswerk;
(Ireland),
North America
powerful
labor terms: in South
the East
naffir, along
in Europe,
38.
communal
in Afrikaans,
ilimo;
Labor
in the Sudan
Chronicle
of an Acequia
(Bergen:
of
University
1.
1987),
39. Ibid., 2-3.

40.
Crawford,
Stanley
(Albuquerque:
41.
Paul
Mayordomo:
University
Dekker
and Loek
tural Perspectives
1, no. 4 (2003):
"work."
Thus
and
Francis
of women,
association
Workers
Publishing,
York:
see
Politics
Press,
The
eds.,
C.
Harry
"Voluntarism"
Willard,
leader
subtitled
her book
to convey
Christian
unpaid
Populism,"
Woman
labours
on
Perspectives
for what
once
Temperance,
Union
(Hartford,
and to challenge
was
U.S.
nineteenth-century
and
Temperance
citizen
depoliticized
substitutes
of the largest
civic
Cross-Cul
of Volunteering:
illustrate
"Civic
Boyte,
in Northern New Mexico

168.
1998),
Values
2003),
Springer,
737-42.
of the Women's
1883)
Mexico
Halman,
(New
for a critique,
ship;
of New
The
Work
CT:
Park
their devalu
ation.
42.
Charlotte
From
Hess
Theory
43.
Garret Hardin,
44.
Hess
Elinor
Ostrom,
Commons,"
47.
Hess
(Boston:
University
37-41,
"Collective
and Ostrom,
Press,
Complexity,
162 (1968):
and
1243-48,
10-11;
of Institutions
at 1244.
also
Elinor
for Collective
1990).
the Commons,"
The
Good
at 39, 40.
Action,
and Ostrom,
Knowledge
3.
as a Commons,
The Evolution
as a Commons:
Knowledge
2006),
Science
Knowledge
Cambridge
in Hess
Press,
of the Commons,"
"Polycentricity,
9, no. 2 (1999):
Levine,
Understanding
MIT
the Commons:
Governing
(Cambridge:
Peter
Ostrom,
Understanding
Action
Society
46.
"Tragedy
and Ostrom,
Ostrom,
45.
and Elinor
to Practice
Civic
Knowledge
as a Commons,
Engagement,
and
as a Commons,
the Knowledge
247.
12.
656
48.
On the clash
"Narrative
between
and
and
Stanford
CA:
Alto,
Public
ern self, Charles
50.
51.
Press,
Sources
Press,
Cambridge
On Arendt's
horror of the privileging
Slow
tics,"
The American
University
of Hard
Boring
John H. Holland,
Boards":
Political
Review,
Culture
Social
Matter,"
Walton
(Palo
theory Nick
in democratic
on the mod
2006;
The Making
of Modern
Identity
1989).
of scientific
From
Emergence:
and
March/April
Methodical
Science
Does
and Michael
37-58;
of the Self:
(Cambridge:
"The
Rao
2004),
Boston
Reigns,"
Taylor,
L. Hammack,
Phillip
Personality
Sen, "How
Amartya
ed. Vijayendra
Action,
University
"Freedom
Bromell,
narratives,
of Identity,"
222-47;
2008):
turn in development,
On the cultural
in Culture
and Palestinian
Psychology
12 (May
Review
Psychological
49.
Jewish
the Cultural
Thinking
to Order
G. Dietz,
Mary
and the Work
88, no. 4 (1994):
Review
Chaos
rationalism,
MA:
(Cambridge,
of Poli
at 875.
873-86,
Perseus
Books, 1998); ibid., 23-24.

52. Ibid., 219-20.
53.
Hannah
1958);
The Human
Arendt,
C.
Harry
"A
Boyte,
(Chicago:
Different
Kind
in the 21st
of Citizenship
Meaning
Condition
of Chicago
University
of Politics:
The
Century,"
John Dewey
Good
Press,
and
the
12, no.
Society
(2003): 1-15.
54.
Interview
by Erik Gerritsen
voidmanufacturing.
Tad
wordpress.
C.
December
Scott,
17, 2009,
http://
com/2009/12/17/interview-with-james-c-scott/
July 2, 2010).
(accessed
55.
with James
Mutersbaugh,
Cultural
Politics
473-94,
(2002):
Common
"Migration,
and Agency
and
Property,
in a Mexican
Communal
Political
Village,"
Labor:
21
Geography
at 475.
56. Ibid., 481.

57.
Tanya
Korovkin,
Civil Society,
Review
the Communal
"Reinventing
and Democratization
36, no. 3 (2001):
37-67,
in Andean
Tradition:
Indigenous
People's,
Latin American
Ecuador,"
Research
at 42.
58. Ibid., 49, 54.

59.
See
Mark
June
Becker,
21,
"Reencounter
of the Original
Peoples,"
http://
upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2554-reencounter-of-the-original
(accessed
peoples-and-nationalities-of-abya-yala-in-ecuador
60.
"Umuganda
Has
Earned
International
Country
Acclaim,"
July 2, 2010).
http://sigriirwanda
.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/umuganda-community-service/
July 2,
(accessed
2010).
61.
Omano
Edigheji,
and the People's

on Idasa
The Emerging
Contract
discussions,
Guardian,
November
the United
Democratic
South African
(Johannesburg:
"Lessons
26, 2004.
Democratic
Centre
from the Field,"

These
Front, which
resurfaced
largely
Developmental
for Policy
Special
2007),
47;
Supplement,
Mail
and
the movement
brought
State
Studies,
in the 1980s,
the end to apartheid,
now
657
Boyte
in official
neglected
"Deliberative
with Horses:
sak, Running
62.
Boyte
In 1969,
interview
with Jacqualine
the Playground
of Civil
'Big
Reveals
67.
as voluntarism
Allan
in
Boe
Town:
(Cape
"Off
1-7, at 6.
Citizens
and Public
Watt, "David
Nicholas
It Is Just Cost
Denies
to
program
Harry Boyte,
9, no. 2 (1999):
1; on Cameron
chap.
"Nixon's
Reconnecting
Visionand
Cutting,"
1999),
York:
91-102.
The Betrayal
B. Crawford,
Work (New
June 30.
problems";
Society
Politics:
2004),
Society'
Stiffed:
and Co.,
Matthew
social
The Good
the Commons,
Governing
Faludi,
Morrow
which
account
July 19, 2010.
Guardian.co.uk,
Susan
in Pretoria,
labelled
Everyday
PennPress,
Ostrom,
Politician
Nzisabira,
Society,"
Harry C. Boyte,
Cameron
66.
of an Accidental
in solving
groups
Life (Philadelphia:
65.
movement
in Dryzek's
On this history, see
Societies."
Reflections
the Wall Street Journal
On Bush,
and also
2009).
enlist the help of private

64.
of the anti-apartheid
renderings
in Divided
Democracy
Joho Press,
63.
public
formal party and state negotiations,
emphasize
of the American
Man
York:
(New
William
39, 23, 599.

Class
Shop
Press,
Penguin
as Soulcraft:
An Inquiry
into the Value
of
82, 14, 6.
2009),
68. Ibid., 21.

69. Ibid., 40, 39.
70. Ibid., 46.
71. Ibid., 43.
72.
Sara
M. Evans
Paradox
73.
74.
David
Osborne
9, no. 2 (1997):
Benjamin
R. Barber,
(New
Thomas
York:
Bender,
76.
Justice:
Wage
(Chicago:
of Chicago,
University
Government's
"Rewriting
Worth and
Comparable
the
1989).
The New
DNA,"
8-12.
A Place
for Us: How
Hill and Wang,
to Make
Society
Civil and Democracy
1998).
and Public
in the United
Life:
States
Essays
(Baltimore,
on the Social
MD:
History
Johns Hopkins
of Aca
Univer
1993).
in Craig
Quoted
Reform
Intellect
demic Intellectuals
sity Press,
Nelson,
and Peter Plastrik,
Democrat
Strong
75.
and Barbara
of Technocratic
Dykstra,
Westminster
John Knox
Governance,
Civic
in the Life
Growing
Press),
55; Harry
and Politics,"
Agency,
of Faith
C. Boyte,
Public
KY:
(Louisville,
Democracy:
"Reframing
Administration
Review
68,
no. 5 (2005): 536-46.

77.
Steve
Fraser,
55-84;
1989),
tion, Decline,
of Kansas
Labor
ed. Steve
1930-1980,
Press
"The
Question,"
Fraser
Thomas
and Gary Gerstle

Spragens,
and Reformation
Press,
2009),
in The Rise and Fall
details
Getting
of American
how
(Princeton:
popular
of the New Deal

Princeton
the Left Right:
Liberalism
agency,
The Transforma
(Lawrence:
animating
Order,
University
University
the New
Deal
658
redistributive
work
illustrate
and working
Michael
the pattern,
Boyte,
80.
Mark
Penn,
Microtrends:
(New
York:
Hachette
82.
83.
John Dewey,
The Teacher
of Work (Oxford:
Linda
M. G. Zerilli,
Press,
85.
86.
views
Mick
87.
Michael
(Chicago:
Democracy's
Scott Peters,
89.
Margaret
1937);
a The
Toward
(Chicago:
Public
Daniel
University
H. Humphrey:
Press,
Rural
105,
Free
Society
106, 108-9.
The Work Ethic
of Chicago
244.
Discontents,
York:
(New
England:
1978),
T. Rodgers,
University
Television
Front
Politics
Medieval
Longman,
Press,
On
in
1974).
Humphrey's
The Art of the Possible,"
November
by
18, 2010.
Verso,
(London:
and the Politics
Hollywood
1997);
of the American
Lary
May,
The
Uni
Way (Chicago:
2000).
Education
"The
Canovan,
of Hannah
and Democracy
(East
Lansing:
State
Michigan
People,
Arendt's
the Masses,
and the Mobilization

Social
'Populism,'"
Research
of Power:
69, no. 2 (2002):
at 418.
On organizing,
Revitalize
Mark
American
Richard
Organizing
L.
R. Warren,
91.
Boyte,
interview
Boyte,
Commonwealth,
93.
Arendt,
94.
Harry C. Boyte,
Human
Faith
Wood,
in America
(Chicago:
with Gerald
NJ:
in Action:
Religion,
of Chicago
Chapel
Hill, NC,
to
Community-Building
Princeton
Race,
Press,
University
and
Press,
Democratic
2002).
April 26, 2002.
8.
200.
"A Commonwealth
38, no. 6 (2010),
Rattling:
University
Taylor,
chap.
Condition,
Dry Bones
(Princeton,
Democracy
92.
Theory
(Cambridge:
2010).
403-22,
2001);
see "Hubert
Cities
The Cultural
Higher
The Paradox
90.
65; see also
in Sandel,
88.
Changes
1991).
to Citizen
(London:
quoted
versity of Chicago
Press,
A Return
Citizenship,
Denning,
Big
D. Appleton-Century,
of Freedom
and John Hatcher,
1850-1920
Big Tomorrow:
Tomorrow's
Work in the Spirit:
Press,
University
1086-1348
Change,
Caouette,
225.
14.
Miller
Twin
York:
Volf,
and the Abyss
Commonwealth:
of the Preamble,
Behind
(New
America
Humphrey
of a Public
in Search
1996),
The Quest for Inclusion
Miroslav
Oxford
2005),
American
Shklar,
Industrial
for
68.
and Society
Feminism
Edward
1989);
for respect
American
Forces
Citizenship:
1991),
and Liberty,
Oppression
and Economic
in
pity for the poor
2007).
Group,
Press,
ology
Press,
Memorial
2.
The Small
Book
Weil,
Harry C. Boyte,
Roosevelt
Press,
University
chap.
American
University
of Chicago
84.
Politics,
Judith N. Shklar,
Harvard
on
by an emphasis
theory
the iconic
substituting
Harvard
(Cambridge:
79.
81.
like
Discontents:
Democracy's
Everyday
in political
replaced
histories
people.
Sandel,
Philosophy
been
Public
justice.
Washington
78.
has
movements,
popular
of Freedom:
Response
to Beltran,"
Political
870-76.
659
B>oyte
95.
Dietz
96.
Edward
"Slow
ing for Power,

97.
Taylor
98.
Rom
89.
Boring,"
T. D. Chambers
in Boyte,
quoted
"Of
Coles,
and
Theory
and Michael
and Justice
Action,
Civic
York:
and
Roots for Radicals:

Continuum,
Tricksters:
Grassroots
on Politics
Perspectives
Organiz
2003).
22.
Agency,
Tensions
Practice,"
A. Cowan,
(New
Between
Democracy
4, no.
3 (Fall,
547-61,
2006):
at 550.
99.
Piotr Perczynski,
cratic
"Active
Innovation:
Saward
(London:
and Associative
Citizenship
Deliberation,
ed. Michael
Association,
162.
2000),
Routledge,
in Demo
Democracy,"
and
Representation
100. Ibid., 167,162.

101.
Saul
"Is There
Alinsky,
Life after Birth?"
June 7,1967
I.A.F.
(Chicago:
reprint),
12-13.
102.
Boyte,
Everyday
Politics,
103.
Albert
W. Dzur,
"Four
nal Disorganization
msp.
104.
106.
John
(Washington:
Chicago
Press,
Sullivan,
Albert
W.
1981),
William
Democratic
Ethics,
Press,
2010),
and the Transformation
Lives
of Moral
Foundation
111.
Everyday
Civic
Politics,
civic
L. Milstein,
Citizen
and
Participation
the
Park:
(University
Journal
Families
"The
of Marital
and
Ther
& Family
December
To Serve
8, 2010).
a Larger
Purpose:
Education
of Higher
Engagement
PA:
(Philadelphia,
forthcoming).
Educating
and
of Professional
28.
and Jerica M. Berge,
eds.,
Anne
chap.
Thomas
(San
Elizabeth
Ehrlich,
America's
Preparing
Responsibility
agency
Hygeia's
Colby,
Citizens:
Francisco:
of Teaching,
for the Advancement
On international
Robert
Press,
at St. Catherine,
Stephens,
and Promise
and Practice
Identity,
(accessed
for Democracy
Jason
of
University
http://findarticles.eom/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_201010/
and Matt Hartley,
University
2009).
(Chicago:
1995),
Care Project,"
Health
John Saltmarsh
On changes
in Collaborative
2008).
Tai J. Mendenhall,
and Citizen
ai_n56230125/?tag=content;coll
Temple
The Crisis
Professionalism:
of Professional
J. Doherty,
Press,
Dewey
Jossey-Bass,
State University
apy (October,
Boyte,
(forthcoming),
334.
Francisco:
(San
Citizens
Engaging
of John
Philosophy
Work and Integrity:
Dzur,
Democracy
110.
Constellations
Institution
Brookings
The
William
Pennsylvania
109.
the Ratio
Toward
Democracy:
Institutions,"
in Democracy:
Investing
McDermott,
Reconstruction
108.
of Government
Sirianni,
ism in America
107.
on Participatory
14-16.
Carmen
Governance
105.
3.
chap.
Theses
2003);
Beaumont,
Undergraduates
for
Jossey-Bass/Carnegie
on Public
Achievement,
5.
trends, see Boyte,

Constellation
Civic
(Atlanta:
Agency;
Centers
in public
for Disease
health,
Control
660
and
Prevention,
Twaweza,
112.
Commonwealth,
Boyte,
113.
in Africa,
2007);
the twentieth
century;
Democracy?"
New
C.
Harry
the East
African
Citizen
Initiative
Agency
www.twaweza.org.
Boyte,
tions," Dewey
chapter
two explores
Judt, "What
Tony
York Review
March
Lecture,
John Dewey:
31, 2007,
stirred by Sombart
and What
December
of Books,
and
"Populism
the debate
Is Living
Is Dead
over
in Social
17, 2009.
and
Convergencies
of Michigan,
University
Contradic
http://ginsberg
.umich.edu/downloads/Boyte_Dewey_Lecture2007.doc.
114.
Boyte,
Civic
115.
Theda
Skocpol
and Lawrence
Ambitious
Governance,
First
Years,
Two
116.
George
117.
Mark
2010
On
online,
Lilla
online
"The
Packer,
(accessed
Jacobs,
Economic
ed. Skocpol
1-72 (accessed
2010),
118.
Agency.
Tea
(New
The New
Party
New
Jacobins,"
Affairs
New
Boom,"
Robert
Jones,
Public
Religious
2009),
York Times,
ment Control,"
the
David
of Books
New
Culture
Post, May
Washington
the
Brooks,
Policy
"The
opinion,
Promise
Institute, November
"America's
and
on public
Issues
Religious
Research
is director
and a senior
His
Life (PennPress,
fellow
books
of the Center
27,
May
Approach,"
Technocracy
E. J. Dionne
to Shape
2012
and
Election,"
17, 2010.
War:
Free Enterprise
versus
Govern
23,2010.
include
2004);
Everyday
(Temple,
1996);
Free
America,
with
Sara
Evans
(Chicago,
Politics
(Free
Press,
1989),
Spaces:
among
School
Politics:
America:
Building
Kari
M.
for Democracy
at the Humphrey
with Nan
Citizen
17, 2010
Author
C. Boyte
Minnesota.
Foundation,
Sage
http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/
July 19, 2010;
"Emerging
Arthur C. Brooks,
College
in Obama's
November
Yorker,
York Review
"Obama
Schambra,
1 (Fall
detail/obama-and-the-policy-approach;
Harry
Russell
9, 2010).
Liberalism,"
William
technocracy,
About
York:
for a New Deal:
Politics
pp. 53.
National
119.
and Polarized
16, 2010).
August
"The
and Jacobs
December
New
in Reaching
"Introduction,"
Meltdown
and Citizenship
of Public
Reconnecting
The Democratic
The Sources
1992),
and
at Augsburg
Affairs, University
Citizens
Promise
of
Public
of Public
of Democratic
Commonwealth:
and
Work
Change
in
A Return
to
others.

Boyte - Constructive Politics As Public Work Organizing The Literature

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Boyte - Constructive Politics As Public Work Organizing The Literature

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Constructive Politics as Public Work: Organizing the Literature

Author(s): Harry C. Boyte

the world. Public work is

simply deliberators and decision-makers about

Agency, citizenship, commonwealth, politics, public work

a long history of reclamation

'Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN

the integrity of the water defences

are the oldest

with it, and then apply

who may or may not have any official

of third way politics

It is a fine sight to see a handful

from other government

levy taxes and function independently

In the 1960s and 1970s social movements took up a myriad of causescivil

among others. Beyond differences, all challenged modern hierarchies and

Pateman, Jane Mansbridge, and Benjamin Barber joined theorists of the

stemmed revolutions from abovecorporate-led

globalization and marketi

the institutions," in the phrase of II Manifesto,8 needed for democratization.

interplay of institutionalized deliberative processes with informally devel

deliberation's strengths and limits. I build on the concept of maximum par

that for participatory

simply distributive, side of politics, including creating the commons, shared

tion, embodies co-creation. I locate public work in relation to other views of

diverse cultures. Constituting elements of the ideal are present in "poldering,"

grounded in an understanding of human plurality, public work has politi

Generalizing beyond specific contexts, I define public work as self-organized

also differsfrom both. Civic capacity stresses flexible, ever-changing learning

to increase capacities to effectively address public problems. It goes beyond

ment," changing political and social relationships to enhance access to influ

concepts of politics and the citizen illuminate dysfunctions of consumer cul

details these in societies where "work" is largely an instrumental means to

Deliberative democracy has the virtue of conceiving of human actors in an

tem, as a given, impervious to deep change. Citizens' deliberative role is to

partially to de-link deliberation from the state, nonetheless reproduces a

crucial experiences like ending apartheid.16 Others in the deliberative camp

is qualitatively different."The theme of the modern (in contrast to the ancient)

sphere of debate and discussion rooted in lecture halls, museums, public

were supported by an information infrastructure of the press, publishing

so forth, not mainly

tionalism to structuralism and post-structuralism, which hold citizens to be

Habermasian theory. For Ian Budge, Habermasian

tual avant-garde is in charge both of identifying the common will [produced

Habermas sees deliberation as a communicative practice with little involve

not "power." Thus, "political influence supported by public opinion is con

McAfee distinguishes practically oriented deliberation in everyday experi

there is a tension in Habermas between "the critical pragmatist" and "the

deafhess of much of conventional social science," identifying challenges like

model," after John Dewey,

his approach with what he calls the "Deweyan

logue by probing our political possibilities. . . . Whose definitions of prob

can "provide a source of creativity and improvisation . . . engendering new

relationships, identities, and agendas. "Listening together, we recognize as

when he seeks to describe what is going on in significantchange. Thus he warns

research" to convey the richness of bottom-up stories, describing changes

regularly which allow generalization of a civic ideal beyond particular com

I use the concept of public work to describe democratizing practices either

tizing practice with communal labor themes manipulated by elites.

showed signs of "adapting to new circumstances and developing new ways of

that the basic

husbandry, or hunting. They include reciprocal effortsto help families such