Caroline Lee, et al., "Democratizing Inequalities: Dilemma of the New Public Participation" (NYU Press, 2015)

Apr 6, 2015

Democratizing Inequalities

Dilemma of the New Public Participation

Caroline Lee, et al.

Hosted by Heath Brown

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Summary

Caroline Lee, Michael McQuarrie, and Edward Walker are the editors of Democratizing Inequalities: Dilemma of the New Public Participation (NYU Press 2015). Lee is associate professor of sociology at Lafayette College, McQuarrie is associate professor of sociology at London School of Economics and Political Science, and Walker is associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Lee is also author of Do-It-Yourself Democracy (Oxford UP 2015). How can the people be heard? For how long have activists fought to answer that question? In these two books, the answer is surprising and somewhat depressing. Many of the activities that promised to empower the public, and give voice to the once silenced (town hall meetings, public deliberation, community building), have been taken over by interests with only passing concern for those voices. In Do-It-Yourself Democracy, Lee tells us about the large industry that has formed around public participation and the perverse effects of this transformation. So many well-meaning activists now compete for public participation contracts, many of those contracts aimed to enable corporations to present the veil of openness and transparency. In Democratizing Inequalities, McQuarrie, both one of the editors and a chapter author, focuses on how Cleveland, OH has seen participatory practices "transformed from the tools of democratization into tools of elite authority." Read these two books and you will experience the next consensus-building meeting you are invited to in a very different way.