Free Spaces: The Sources of Democratic Change in America - Softcover

Evans, Sara M.; Boyte, Harry C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226222578 ISBN 13: 9780226222578

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1992

Synopsis

What are the environments, the public spaces, in which ordinary people become participants in the complex, ambiguous, engaging conversation about democracy: participators in governance rather than spectators or complainers, victims or accomplices? What are the roots, not simply of movements against oppression, but also of those democratic social movements which both enlarge the opportunities for participation and enhance people's ability to participate in the public world?

In Free Spaces, Sara M. Evans and Harry C. Boyte argue for a new understanding of the foundations for democratic politics by analyzing the settings in which people learn to participate in democracy. In their new Introduction, the authors link the concept of free spaces to recent theoretical discussions about community, public life, civil society, and social movements.

About this title

About the Author

Sara M. Evans is Chair of the Department of History at the University of Minnesota and the author ofPersonal Politics and coauthor (with Barbara J. Nelson) of Wage Justice.Harry C. Boyte is Director of Project Public Life at the University of Minnesota and the author ofThe Backyard Revolution and Commonwealth.

From Library Journal

The authors argue that major social movements benefitting blacks, women, labor, and farmers began with voluntary associations that provided their respective members with the skills to accomplish social change. For example, black churches, free from white control, allowed "free spaces" that ultimately furthered the goals of abolition and civil rights. Evans and Boyte observe that thinkers on both the right and left of the political spectrum view voluntary groups as conservative forces that help stabilize the existing order. Right-wing individuals affirm such groups, while the left regards them as counterproductive to social change. The authors argue, however, that participation in such groups as local unions, neighborhood organizations, rural cooperatives, etc., has done more to advance democracy than have the citizenship activities of becoming politically informed and voting. Recommended primarily for academic libraries. David Steiniche, Social Sciences Dept., Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0226222578
• ISBN 13: 9780226222578
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 268