The belief that talk matters is a precondition of participatory democracy

Evidence

For activists, in contrast, the democratic ideal eventually came to mean engaging in often discordant verbal clashes with institutions, and making verbal connections with other activist groups ^ through newsletters, word of mouth, press conferences, statewide meetings ^ more than one mentioned global computer networks in interviews with me.“Doing something” meant, above all, talking, writing letters, complaining, making a scene, trying to learn more about the national and international roots that they assumed were under many local problems. Being a good citizen meant voicing criticism. They assumed that citizens’ talk mattered. Perhaps the activists were Pollyanna-ish to make the assumption that talk mattered, but assuming that talk matters is certainly a step in making it matter, and without that assumption, there can be no participatory democratic politics. — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 138

Categorization

• XREF: Central to the reader’s interest in positive shared projects — activism here solidifies around voicing criticism and networking, replacing cynicism with collective verbal action. — connects to: A folk theory that talk changes nothing underwrites civic apathy in volunteer groups — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 93; Citizens jointly create contexts for political conversation through civic practices — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 186; Valuing their own talk lets citizen groups grow political knowledge and broaden concern — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1498 (+6 more)

Related

• Civic talk is improvised practical etiquette, not systematic logic (similarity 0.84)
• Citizens jointly create contexts for political conversation through civic practices (similarity 0.83)
• A folk theory that talk changes nothing underwrites civic apathy in volunteer groups (similarity 0.83)
• Valuing their own talk lets citizen groups grow political knowledge and broaden concern (similarity 0.83)
• Public talk itself, not just outcome interest, creates selves and communities. (similarity 0.82)
• Civic engagement is a mode of talk, not a subject matter (similarity 0.82)
• Political disengagement is socially produced in conversation, not just held in beliefs (similarity 0.81)
• Believing public talk is powerless makes volunteers feel powerless. (similarity 0.80)
• Civic understanding grows in face-to-face talk rather than inside individuals. (similarity 0.80)
• Citizens express political ideas privately yet avoid public political engagement (similarity 0.78)
• Volunteers suppress political talk because it would sink their feeling of empowerment (similarity 0.78)
• Avoiding politics is not rooted in ideological faith in systems working (similarity 0.78)
• Volunteers frame political talk as morally exclusionary of ordinary less-eloquent people. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Citizens jointly create contexts for political conversation through civic practices #corroborates (0.85) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 186
• Deliberative politics is constitutive of democracy, not a regulative ideal #expands (0.82) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 54
• Valuing their own talk lets citizen groups grow political knowledge and broaden concern #exemplifies (0.80) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 1498