Governance as social and political communication / edited by Henrik P. Bang.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bang, Henrik Paul.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political science.

Communication in politics.

Democracy.

Physical Description:

xi, 271 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2003.

Summary:

Governance is among the most used of new ideas in the social sciences, most notably in the fields of political science, public administration, sociology, social and political theory. As ever, debates within disciplines rarely transcend disciplinary boundaries. This volume will bring together authors from these fields to elaborate on the development of governance analysis in new conceptions of political and democratic communication. It will not only seek to identify, describe and evaluate the contribution of each discipline to a theory of communicative governance, but will also lay the foundation of a multidisciplinary framework for studying the mediation in communicative governance of societal concerns for effectiveness, order and participation. The book is theoretical and comparative, drawing on authors and research in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the US. It adopts an antifoundational approach to deconstruct the essentialist discourses endemic in each discipline and the disciplinary traditions of each country. Notions such as steering and control in public administration, identities and domination in sociology, and the community and self in social and political theory are analysed in depth. The book will demonstrate clearly how the distinctive traditions of each discipline lead them to construct overlapping, loosely coupled, and sometimes incommensurable ideas about the institutions, politics and policies of governance.

Contents:

1 Governance as political communication / Henrik P. Bang 7

Part I Governance theory and analysis in political science

2 New challenges to governance theory / Renate Mayntz 27

3 A constructivist bottom-up approach to governance: the need for increased theoretical and methodological awareness in research / Jens Hoff 41

4 Decentring British governance: from bureaucracy to networks / Mark Bevir, R. A. W. Rhodes 61

5 Activation in governance / Jan Kooiman 79

Part II Sociological analyses of meta-governance, governmentality and symbolic violence

6 Governance and meta-governance: on reflexivity, requisite variety and requisite irony / Bob Jessop 101

7 Culture governance and individualisation / Mitchell Dean 117

8 Pierre Bourdieu's political sociology and governance perspectives / David L. Swartz 140

Part III Political theory and democratic governance

9 The language of democracy and the democracy of language / John G. Gunnell 161

10 Contingency and the limits of contract / Tracy B. Strong 180

11 A decentred theory of governance / Mark Bevir 200

12 Governing at close range: demo-elites and lay people / Henrik P. Bang, Torben Bech Dyrberg 222

13 A new ruler meeting a new citizen: culture governance and everyday making / Henrik P. Bang 241.

Notes:

"This book is the result of ongoing discussions in various seminars and conferences held in Copenhagen by the Centre for Research in Public Organisation and Management (COS)"--Introd.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0719061547

OCLC:

53369403

Online:

Publisher description