Citizen participation has undergone a radical shift since anxieties about "bowling alone" seized the nation in the 1990s. Many pundits and observers have cheered America's twenty-first century civic renaissance-an explosion of participatory innovations in public life. Invitations to "have your say!" and "join the discussion!" have proliferated. But has the widespread enthusiasm for maximizing citizen democracy led to real change?
In Do-It-Yourself Democracy, sociologist Caroline W. Lee examines how participatory innovations have reshaped American civic life over the past two decades. Lee looks at the public engagement industry that emerged to serve government, corporate, and nonprofit clients seeking to gain a handle on the increasingly noisy demands of their constituents and stakeholders. The beneficiaries of new forms of democratic empowerment are not only humble citizens, but also the engagement experts who host the forums. Does it matter if the folks deepening democracy are making money at it? How do they make sense of the contradictions inherent in their roles?
In investigating public engagement practitioners' everyday anxieties and larger worldviews, we see reflected the strange meaning of power in contemporary institutions. New technologies and deliberative practices have democratized the ways in which organizations operate, but Lee argues that they have also been marketed and sold as tools to facilitate cost-cutting, profitability, and other management goals - and that public deliberation has burdened everyday people with new responsibilities without delivering on its promises of empowerment.
Industry Reviews
"Lee focuses on dialogues, deliberations, and other organized, face-to-face conversations about public issues. She raises crucial questions about the net impact of hundreds of small-scale, safe deliberations on public life. Her critical observations are insightful, trenchant, and often humorous." -- Peter Levine, Tufts University
"The book raises questions that the industry, and for that matter scholars of democratic deliberation, must confront." -- Journal of Public Deliberation
"At a time when paralysis plagues professional politics, this fascinating book takes us deep into a parallel universe. Here, under the watchful eyes of professional deliberation managers, citizens negotiate with one another to make the hard choices their elected representatives so often duck. This book reminds us that when governments fail, citizens will seek democracy elsewhere - and that for all the rhetoric of do-it-yourself empowerment, there's no guarantee
they'll find it. A mesmerizing and ultimately frightening read." -- Fred Turner, author of The Democratic Surround
"I have been involved for decades in the field that Caroline Lee insightfully describes and criticizes in this remarkable book. Although I recognize myself in some of its satirical passages, I consider it essential reading for anyone who cares about deliberative democracy and also community service, youth engagement, and other civic practices. We cannot move forward without addressing the shortcomings Lee explores."
-- Perspectives on Politics
"In Do-It-Yourself Democracy, Caroline Lee powerfully demonstrates the often unexpected consequences of deliberative decision making practices. This rich and complex analysis, forcefully argued and elegantly presented, makes important contributions to our understanding of the development of new forms of political engagement as well as to fundamental debates over the democratic character of the modern American state. By illuminating how participatory
practices function simultaneously as methods for the containment of dissent and the production of consent, Caroline Lee provides a cautionary tale for the present moment." -Elisabeth S. Clemens, University of
Chicago
"A fresh and fascinating look at participatory democracy today. As Caroline Lee demonstrates, we've come a long way from the 1960s. Now, the Obama administration supports the efforts, civic leaders endorse them, and corporations underwrite them. Lee gets to the heart of the matter by focusing on the wizards behind the democratic curtain - the professionals who organize participatory events. Do-It-Yourself Democracy is, in turn, idealistic, moving,
personal, deeply researched, elegantly written, skeptical, wise, and highly recommended."
--James A. Morone, author of The Devils We Know
"Lee describes the practices of the public engagement industry in seeking to facilitate dialogue in government, corporate, and nonprofit contexts. She portrays the idealism of these facilitators in their belief that public engagement is inherently good. Readers cannot help but wonder whether the deliberation that occurs in these forms is more symbolic than real. ... a wonderfully balanced portrait that includes both the charms and warts of the industry."
-CHOICE
"Do-It-Yourself Democracy takes a hard look at processes of public engagement that can easily be regarded as promising new ways that ordinary people can influence state action and shape their own futures. As Lee reflects, it is not easy to take a critical stance toward political phenomena that are widely considered authentically democratic and progressive. That she is able to make such a convincing case for the limitations and political dangers of this
popular form of civic deliberation is a tribute to Lee's careful analysis. This is a groundbreaking book that deserves to be read by all scholars of social movements and politics." -Mobilization
"Do-It-Yourself Democracy offers a deep and sensitive critique of the contemporary conundrum between achieving individual authenticity and collective social change in American society."
--Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania, Contemporary Sociology
"...this subtle, empathetic,and brilliant book shows, in crystal-clearmicrocosm, a revolution that hardly anybody has noticed. Through colorful, sometimes laugh-out-loud storytelling,
multiple angles of theory, and diligently gathered statistics, author Caroline
Lee walks us through this horrifying, strange redo of the relations among
politics, spirituality, creativity, professionalism, and the market." -Nina Eliasoph, University of Southern California
"This subtle, empathetic, and brilliant book shows, in crystal-clear microcosm, a revolution that hardly anybody has noticed. Through colorful, sometimes laugh-out-loud storytelling, multiple angles of theory, and diligently gathered statistics, author Caroline Lee walks us through this horrifying, strange redo of the relations among politics, spirituality, creativity, professionalism, and the market Is it a perfect introduction to this new spirit of
democracy."
--American Journal of Sociology
"The idea that participatory democracy can be used as a tool for social control rather than liberation is hardly new, but the nuanced analysis of these processes in action, the focus on deliberative processes across sectors and contexts, and the attention to how individual professionals (and the broader public engagement industry) shape and reproduce these outcomes are well worth examination, and well examined in Do-It-Yourself Democracy."
--Robert J. Chaskin, University of Chicago, Governance
"Lee's book is a thoughtful, well-rounded examination of the "public engagement industry," based on years of careful ethnographic work. The book is sharply written, provocative, and engaging, a must read for anyone who spends time thinking about the promise and potential of mass citizen engagement processesEL This book is an important contribution to a developing literature that is inviting researchers to think harder about the actual experience of citizen
engagementEL It should be read both deeply and widely for years to come." --The International Journal of Press/Politics
"There are at least two major reasons why any scholar with even a remote interest in politics should read this book" empirical discovery and theoretical challenge Lee is offering a really important and impressive empirical discovery in this book."
--Lyn Spillman, University of Notre Dame, Trajectories
"Do-It-Yourself Democracy is about the business of public engagement in America, including the industry's history, effects on citizens, and detailed anecdotes from events Lee observed personally. The book is hugely valuable for its role in exposing major moral questions about the way governments are run today, and it is entertaining to read. Lee inserts the reader into certain important deliberations - one on post-Katrina recovery, for example - that
transport the reader into those communities. Most importantly, the book brings to light this obscure industry that may grow to have far-reaching impact."
--Journal of Political Science Education
