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The American Review of Public Administration
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Participatory Governance as Deliberative Empowerment

The Cultural Politics of Discursive Space

Frank Fischer

Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey

This article argues that there is a need to enrich the theory of citizen participation and the design of deliberation practices through greater attention to the cultural politics of deliberative space. The article focuses on the ways the social valorization of political space influences basic discursive processes such as who speaks, how knowledge is constituted, what can be said, and who decides. From this perspective, decentralized design principles are necessary but insufficient requirements for deliberative empowerment. The point is illustrated through an analysis of the Science for the People movement in Kerala, India, a prominent example of deliberative empowerment. The discussion shows how the movement employed cultural and pedagogical strategies to facilitate an empowered participation of local citizens in the deliberative planning process. These experiences demonstrate the importance of a deeper understanding of cultural meaning and political identity in the theory of democratic deliberation and the practice of participatory governance.

Key Words: citizen participation • deliberation • culture • social space • decentralized governance • local knowledge

The American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 36, No. 1, 19-40 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0275074005282582
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