ORCID Profile
0000-0002-3018-8791
Current Organisation
University of Southampton
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Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-07-2014
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-01-2015
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 23-02-2015
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-03-2018
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-07-2016
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 04-2021
DOI: 10.1086/713173
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-06-2021
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 10-10-2019
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 20-10-2020
DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780198843054.001.0001
Abstract: This book advances the idea of democratic mending in response to the growing problem of disconnections in contemporary democracies. Around the globe vital connections in our democratic systems are wearing thin, especially between citizens and their elected representatives, between citizens in polarized public spheres, and between citizens and their complex governance systems. The wide scale of disrepair in our democratic fabric cannot realistically be patched over through institutional redesign or one-off innovation. Instead this book calls for a more connective and systemic approach to repairing democracies. For reform inspiration the authors engage in a critical dialogue between systems thinking in deliberative democracy and contemporary practices of political participation. They present three rich empirical cases of how everyday actors — citizens, community groups, administrators, and elected officials—are seeking to create and strengthen democratic connections in unpromising or challenging circumstances. The cases uncover the practical and varied work of democratic mending these are small-scale, incremental interventions aimed at repairing disconnects in different parts of democratic systems. The empirical insights revealed in this book push forward ideas on connectivity in democratic theory and practice. They demonstrate that even in moments of dysfunctional disconnection, considerable learning, adaptation, and improvisation for democratic renewal can emerge. Ultimately, this book pioneers an approach to analysing democratic politics which might spark a ‘connective turn’ in the way scholars and practitioners think about and seek to improve democracy at the large scale.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2014
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Date: 04-2017
DOI: 10.1332/030557315X14502713105886
Abstract: The recent shift towards a deliberative systems approach suggests understanding public deliberation as a communicative activity occurring in a ersity of spaces. While theoretically attractive, the deliberative systems approach raises a number of methodological questions for empirical social scientists. For ex le, how does one identify multiple communicative sites within a deliberative system, how does one study connections between different sites, and how does one assess the impact of the broader context on deliberative forums and systems? Drawing on multiple case studies, this article argues that interpretive research methods are well-suited to studying the ambiguities, dynamics and politics of complex deliberative systems.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-07-2015
Publisher: De Gruyter
Date: 05-06-2023
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 20-09-2019
Abstract: In an apparently post-truth era, the social science scholar, by disposition and training committed to rational argumentation and the pursuit of truth, appeals as the ideal bulwark against excessive politicization of facts and expertise. In this article, we look to the experience of four prominent social scientists who have recently left the academy to enter politics with the aim of using their academic expertise to reshape policy. We use these cases to explore fundamental dilemmas derived from a close reading of Max Weber’s seminal vocation essays of a century ago. Weber observed that politicians were driven by a will to power, whereas academics were driven by a will to truth. We argue that these two competing dispositions create four tensions for the academic turned politician: (1) between calling and commitment, (2) between means and ends, (3) between rationalization and professionalization and (4) between facts and values. Analysing memoirs written by four of the most prominent academics-turned-politicians in recent times, we explore how Weber’s tensions manifest in contemporary practice. Our account reveals that these actors face a daunting, but not impossible, task. Their success depends on wedding the relentless pursuit of ends with the prudent application of political means.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2014
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-10-2017
Abstract: Deliberative democrats have long considered the trade-off between norms of inclusion and efficiency. The latest attempt at reconciliation is the deliberative systems model, which situates and links in idual sites of deliberation in their macro context. Yet, critics argue that this move to scale up leaves inclusive practices of citizen deliberation vulnerable. Here, we seek to mitigate these concerns via an unlikely source: bureaucracy. Drawing on the notion of policy feedback, with its attendant focus on how policies (re)make democratic politics, we envision a deliberative bureaucracy where implementation and service delivery are imbued with norms of justification, publicity and, most radically, inclusion. Looking at promising contemporary governance practices, we argue that a deliberative bureaucracy, with the rich public encounters it might foster, can reconcile the desire to scale up deliberative democracy to whole systems with the desire to hold on to the benefits of scaled-down citizen deliberation.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-03-2017
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 26-01-2022
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2013
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for John Boswell.