Reimagining Democracy - Communication Activism, Social Justice, and Prefiguration in

Reimagining Democracy: Communication Activism, Social Justice, and Prefiguration in Participatory Budgeting presents findings from a multi-year, community-based, critical ethnography of two participatory budgeting (PB) processes in Denver, Colorado. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews with PB participants, Vincent Russell argues that the PB processes served as sites of prefigurative communication activism, where participants reimagined how government should operate, and activists transformed social and power relations through their in-group deliberations. Participants from oppressed populations emphasized forging relationships and feelings of solidarity among each other as they struggled for liberation, dignity, and social justice. Reimagining Democracy teaches important lessons about the state of democratic culture in the United States and offers alternative pathways for public decision making that hold the promise of restructuring practices, processes, and outcomes to be more socially just. Written in an engaging style with a focus on narratives about social change, this book is an important contribution for scholars, practitioners, and community members passionate about social justice activism.

List of contents

Chapter 1: This Machine Has a Soul: Participatory Budgeting Comes to Denver, Colorado
Chapter 2: Auraria Participatory Budgeting: Students' Struggles for Justice
Chapter 3: Cole Has a Soul: People Power, Community Connection, and Relationship
Chapter 4: Transformations: Changes in Participants' Capacities for Social Justice
Chapter 5: Implementing Participatory Budgeting for Social Justice

About the author

Vincent Russell is assistant professor in the Communication Department at Western Carolina University.

Product details

• Authors: Vincent Russell, Vincent Russell
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.01.2025
• EAN: 9781666942538
• ISBN: 978-1-66694-253-8
• No. of pages: 232
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Social education, social work; Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication > General, dictionaries; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / Political Advocacy, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Communication Studies, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / Local, Political activism, Communication Studies, United States of America, USA, Social and ethical issues, Public health and preventive medicine, Regional, state and other local government policies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Activism & Social Justice, Political activism / Political engagement, Political structures / systems: democracy