Bringing the Civic Landscape into Being: How Varied Patterns of Civic Action Respond to and Create Dilemmas in Empowerment Projects

Eliasoph, Nina; Céfaï, Daniel

doi:10.1007/s10767-020-09380-6

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 59 publications

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“…In this way, group styles facilitate different “democratic imaginations” (Perrin 2006) in civic groups, shaping members’ understanding of what is appropriate for public debate, what solutions are possible, and what action can be taken to advance such solutions (Eliasoph and Cefaï 2020; Eliasoph and Lichterman 2010; Patsias, Hermann, and Patsias 2019). As past studies have shown, groups often develop varying democratic imaginations based on different images of the role of civil society and the political tactics they deem appropriate for “groups like them” (Braunstein 2017).…”

Section: Style: Interaction Patterns Scene Typification and Democrati...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Situational Orders: Interaction Patterns and the Standards for Evaluating Public Discourse

Marom

2023

Sociological Theory

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How do civic groups judge what issues are appropriate for public discourse? And how do they know what kinds of arguments to use where? Cultural sociologists identify varying “orders of worth,” that is, historically defined systems of typification and evaluation people draw on to evaluate public arguments. Yet it remains unclear how these take form in ongoing group practices. This article theorizes how groups’ ongoing interaction patterns, or “style,” typify social scenes to steer members toward distinct orders of worth in varying situations. As I argue, different typifications of public and private scenes condition the type of arguments members deem appropriate for public discourse, with meaningful implications for their politics. Combining style and orders of worth allows us to ask how ostensibly similar groups may publicly define different political goals and value varying forms of civic engagement. I illustrate this theoretical framework with an ethnographic study of two culturally distinct groups of libertarians in the United States.

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Section: Style: Interaction Patterns Scene Typification and Democrati...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Situational Orders: Interaction Patterns and the Standards for Evaluating Public Discourse

Marom

2023

Sociological Theory

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Patterns of tolerance: how interaction culture and community relations explain political tolerance (and intolerance) in the American libertarian movement

Marom

2024

Theor Soc

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Existing explanations of political intolerance and partisanship highlight how individuals’ ideological commitments and the homogeneity of their political environments foster intolerance toward other political groups. This article argues that cultural, interactional conditions play a crucial role in how personal and environmental factors work – or do not work – in local groups. Based on a four-year ethnographic study and 12 focus group discussions with two culturally distinct civic associations of American libertarians, I show how groups’ varying patterns of interaction, or “styles,” establish distinct cultural settings, in which different attitudes and behaviors seem sensible and appropriate, particularly regarding other political groups. Thus, when libertarian groups established a “community style” of interaction, viewing the relationship among members in terms of friendship and community bonds, they also opened their social activities to non-libertarians, collaborated with them in political projects, and viewed politics as a matter of advancing shared interests with people from other political groups. Comparisons across and within field sites show how this relationship between style and political tolerance works in different libertarian groups and different social environments. These findings highlight the role of local factors in explaining variations in groups’ levels of political tolerance and present a key mechanism—centered on interaction patterns—to supplement existing analyses of the relationship between political intolerance and changing forms of civic organizing in the US.

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Fluid Forms of Organizing Volunteering: Producing Civic Action Through Organizational Maintenance

Højgaard,

Egholm

2024

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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This article explores the evolving nature of volunteering in fluid forms of organizing and their potential for civic action. While previous research suggests that highly individualized volunteering can undermine collectivity and disconnect tasks from change-oriented goals, thus diminishing its civic character, this study employs Lichterman and Eliasoph’s conceptual framework of civic action and Dewey’s concept of ends-in-view to demonstrate how civic action arises in fluid forms of organizing through the ongoing coordination of organizational maintenance. Drawing on an 18-month ethnographic study of female breakers aiming to improve women’s access to a male-dominated street dance scene, we find that fluid organizing produces a distinct form of volunteering that invigorates a collective and change-oriented endeavor. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding and investigating new contexts and forms of volunteering to shed new light on contemporary volunteerism, its multifaceted nature, and its potential to mobilize collective efforts for societal change.

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Bringing the Civic Landscape into Being: How Varied Patterns of Civic Action Respond to and Create Dilemmas in Empowerment Projects

Cited by 4 publications

References 59 publications

Situational Orders: Interaction Patterns and the Standards for Evaluating Public Discourse

Situational Orders: Interaction Patterns and the Standards for Evaluating Public Discourse

Patterns of tolerance: how interaction culture and community relations explain political tolerance (and intolerance) in the American libertarian movement

Fluid Forms of Organizing Volunteering: Producing Civic Action Through Organizational Maintenance

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