Rethinking Civic Participation in Democratic Theory and Practice

Rod Dacombe is Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Political Economy, King's College, London, UK. Previously he was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the same department. He works on civic participation, democratic theory and the role of voluntary associations in public administration.

This book makes an important contribution to contemporary debates over the place of civic participation in democratic theory and practice. Drawing on a detailed case study of the Blackbird Leys area of Oxford, the book employs a novel empirical approach to ask whether widespread participation in civic life can enhance the prospects for democracy, given the low levels of participation which tend to exist in deprived areas. Throughout, it presents an account of participation rooted in the history and development of the case, in order to avoid the kinds of abstraction which are characteristic of many existing studies in the area. The book will appeal to scholars working on democratic theory in applied settings, and will be of interest to anyone concerned with inequalities in civic participation.

1. The problem with civic participation.- 2. Neighbourhood poverty and the democracy of association.- 3. Participation and democracy in policy and practice.- 4. Civic life in Blackbird Leys.- 5.  Civic participation, formal politics and the democratic underground.- 6. Community structure, participation and stability.- 7. Networks, reciprocity and trust.- 8. Does deprivation really work against participation?.- 9. Responding to democracy's critics.