What Democracy Looks Like : The Rhetoric of Social Movements and Counterpublics

Foust, Christina R. (EDT); Pason, Amy (EDT); Rogness, Kate Zittlow (EDT)

ISBN 10: 0817358935 / ISBN 13: 9780817358938

Published by University Alabama Press, 2017

About this Item

May show signs of wear, highlighting, writing, and previous use. This item may be a former library book with typical markings. No guarantee on products that contain supplements Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Twenty-five year bookseller with shipments to over fifty million happy customers.

Seller Inventory # 29316427-5

Bibliographic Details

• Title: What Democracy Looks Like : The Rhetoric of Social Movements and Counterpublics
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817358935
• ISBN 13: 9780817358938
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: good

About this title

Synopsis

Examining How Social Movements and Counterpublics Shape Democratic Change.

Recent protests around the world (such as the Arab Spring uprisings and Occupy Wall Street movements) have drawn renewed interest to the study of social change and, especially, to the manner in which words, images, events, and ideas associated with protestors can “move the social.” What Democracy Looks Like is an attempt to foster a more coherent understanding of social change among scholars of rhetoric and communication studies by juxtaposing the ideas of social movements and counterpublics―historically two key factors significant in the study of social change. Foust, Pason, and Zittlow Rogness’s volume compiles the voices of leading and new scholars who are contributing to the history, application, and new directions of these two concepts, all in conversation with a number of acts of resistance or social change.

The theories of social movements and counterpublics are related, but distinct. Social movement theories tend to be concerned with enacting policy and legislative changes. Scholars flying this flag have concentrated on the organization and language (for example, rallies and speeches) that are meant to enact social change. Counterpublic theory, on the other hand, focuses less on policy changes and more on the unequal distribution of power and resources among different protest groups, which is sometimes synonymous with subordinated identity groups such as race, gender, sexuality, and class.

Nonetheless, contributors argue that in recent years the distinctions between these two methods have become less evident. By putting the literatures of the two theories in conversation with one another, these scholars seek to promote and imagine social change outside the typical binaries.

About the Author

Christina R. Foust is an associate professor and chair of communication studies at the University of Denver and is the author of Transgression as a Mode of Resistance.

Amy Pason is an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her work has appeared in the International Journal of Communication and ephemera.

Kate Zittlow Rogness teaches at Hamline University. Her work has appeared in First Amendment Studies and the Western Journal of Communication.