Civic talk is improvised practical etiquette, not systematic logic

Evidence

This etiquette varies from one context to another, so one way of observing this process of creating contexts is to notice the dramatic changes in discourse from frontstage to backstage. This civic etiquette is always an active, culturally creative response to a particular context. Civic practices are the fundamentally sociable processes by which citizens create contexts for political conversation in civil society, by jointly creating a relationship to speech itself. In creating these contexts, citizens develop meaning-making powers together. These ”practices” defy the logic of systematic thinking, but embody instead practical knowledge that participants share, that allows them to make sense of situations together. ”Practice has a logic which is not that of the logician” but is a ”practical coherence,” on the order of ”tact, skill, dexterity, delicacy, or savoir-faire: all names for the practical sense” (Bourdieu 1990: 80— 86).”° When I discovered that citizens’ conversations in the public sphere were less wide-ranging than their conversations in intimate contexts were, my initial question — ”How do Americans talk about politics in these contexts?” — quickly became ”How do Americans avoid public-spirited political conversation in these contexts, and what are they doing instead, that makes such conversation so rare?” — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 186

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘civic practices’ as the sociable process of citizens jointly creating a relationship to speech itself.
• XREF: connects to: Civic engagement is a mode of talk, not a subject matter — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 147; Etiquette regulates which conversations get a comfortable public context — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 180; Civic volunteers deflect principled proposals by responding only to trivial practical details — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 344 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Civic engagement is a mode of talk, not a subject matter #expands (0.85) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 147
• Etiquette regulates which conversations get a comfortable public context #expands (0.82) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 180
• People hedge civic language where it feels dangerous or powerless #exemplifies (0.80) — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 147
• The belief that talk matters is a precondition of participatory democracy #qualifies (0.78) — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 138
• Civic volunteers deflect principled proposals by responding only to trivial practical details #exemplifies (0.75) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 344