What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? I found myself asking that very question while doing the readings this week, I even double checked to make sure I was reading the correct articles.
Oppression, The Other, Recognition, Activism? What does that have to do with community? With literacy? With Community Literacy? I wasn't sure… so I began to think outside the box…I think…
I found Young's two articles to be very insightful. I felt that Activist Challenges to Deliberative Democracy was very well put together, understandable, and insightful but it was very black and white. There seemed to be no middle ground, which isn't how things are in real life.
The way I see Activism vs. Deliberative Democracy is the deliberative democratic can be found in the middle of the spectrum. He or she is not extremely left or extremely right. The activist on the other hand is (or rather, can be) extremist---either to the left or right of the political spectrum. Obviously this theory isn't concrete and is most certainly open to criticism and exceptions.
At first, while reading this article I felt that the Activist was being portrayed negatively, but after reading further I changed my mind. My question is which character is more effective? Though I think that deliberative democracy has its place and can do good in many situations, I know that actions speak louder than words. Activist can get their issues out there for the people to hear about.
If in fact, communities don't exist without conflict, or at the very least, if communities are built around conflict then activism brings communities closer, and makes them stronger.
Deliberative democracy, on the other hand, brings two communities or a community and the opposing force, together to solve their issues.
I think this article could easily be read along side Fleming's book, identifying activism and deliberative democracy throughout the examples provided.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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You are asking precisely the sorts of questions that I want you to ask, beginning with "what does this have to do with this class?!"
ReplyDeleteI always write my posts before I read others... Maybe a bad idea? Because I wrote about how actions speak louder than words. And while reading your post, I realized a flaw with my example of the RAF in Germany. Nothing really changed because of the RAF. Do things really change because of deliberative democracy, either?
ReplyDeleteI think your question kind of speaks to counterpublics - women, homosexuals, African Americans, etc. They are oppressed, so they form groups among themselves to combat the oppression. Yes?
Groups or communities?
ReplyDeleteDid nothing really change because of RAF? I think that activism and deliberative democracy both can make changes, they may not be large and they may not be the changes that were intended but they still made changes.