Bringing expert knowledge to bear in an open and deliberative way to help solve pressing social problems is a major concern today, when technocratic and bureaucratic decision making often occurs with little or no input from the general public. Albert Dzur proposes an approach he calls “democratic professionalism” to build bridges between specialists in domains like law, medicine, and journalism and the lay public in such a way as to enable and enhance broader public engagement with and deliberation about major social issues. Sparking a critical and constructive dialogue among social theories of the professions, professional ethics, and political theories of deliberative democracy, Dzur reveals interests, motivations, strengths, and vulnerabilities in conventional professional roles that provide guideposts for this new approach. He then applies it in examining three practical arenas in which experiments in collaboration and power-sharing between professionals and citizens have been undertaken: public journalism, restorative justice, and the bioethics movement. Finally, he draws lessons from these cases to refine this innovative theory and identify the kinds of challenges practitioners face in being both democratic and professional.

Democratic professionalism is an approach that enables public service professionals to work more democratically with clients, patients, students and other public service users. This book explores what it means to act in a democratic way and provides practical guidance which will help public service professionals ensure users are at the centre of public services delivery, drawing from examples of different public services around the world. It considers the conflicts and tensions of being an activist and a professional and provides a vision for a future democratic professionalism.

Democratic professionalism is an approach that enables public service professionals to work more democratically with clients, patients, students and other public service users. This book explores what it means to act in a democratic way and provides practical guidance which will help public service professionals ensure users are at the centre of public services delivery, drawing from examples of different public services around the world. It considers the conflicts and tensions of being an activist and a professional and provides a vision for a future democratic professionalism.

This timely and accessible book examines two waves of business influence that created models of schooling that are out of touch with the experiences of students, the professional expertise of teachers, and the needs and interests of local communities. The book also describes the forms of resistance that are currently emerging to fight for the democratic mission of a public education. Building on these promising efforts, the authors present a vision for a new democratic professional that is grounded in participatory communities of practice, as well as advocacy for and input from school communities. More than a critique of the state of education, this volume demonstrates how educators can build coalitions and advocate for policies and practices that respect their experience and knowledge and that support their students and communities. “This book advocates for democratic and equitable public schools with concrete, evidence-driven policies and practices.” —Janelle Scott, University of California, Berkeley “An important and accessible book that should be read by public educators at all levels.” —Ken Zeichner, University of Washington “Outlines a clear path forward for resisting counterproductive reforms.” —Tina Trujillo, University of California, Berkeley

This stimulating book explores theories, conceptual frameworks, and cultural approaches with the purpose of uncovering a cross-cultural understanding of landscape democracy, a concept at the intersection of landscape, democracy and spatial justice. The authors of Defining Landscape Democracy address a number of questions that are critical to the contemporary discourse on the right to landscape: Why is democracy relevant to landscape? How do we democratise landscape? How might we achieve landscape and spatial justice?

Democratic innovations are proliferating in politics, governance, policy, and public administration. These new processes of public participation are reimagining the relationship between citizens and institutions. This Handbook advances understanding of democratic innovations, in theory and practice, by critically reviewing their importance throughout the world. The overarching themes are a focus on citizens and their relationship to these innovations, and the resulting effects on political equality. The Handbook therefore offers a definitive overview of existing research on democratic innovations, while also setting the agenda for future research and practice.

This book examines the role of policy expertise in a democratic society. From the perspectives of both political theory and policy studies, the chapters explore the implications of deliberative democratic governance for professional expertise and extends them to specific policy practices. Following the lead of John Dewey, the discussion focuses in particular on the ways professional practices might be reoriented to assist citizens in understanding and discussing the complex policy issues of an advanced technological society. In doing so, it also explores how public deliberation can be improved through more cooperative forms of policy inquiry. Adopting a deliberative-analytic approach , policy inquiry is grounded in a postempiricist, constructivist understanding of inquiry and knowledge and the participatory practices that support it. Toward this end, the chapters draw on thriving theoretical and practical work dedicated to revitalizing the citizen's role in both civil society and newer practices of democratic governance, in particular deliberative democracy in political theory, practical work with deliberative experiments, the theory and practices of democratic governance, and participatory research. Deliberative practices are promoted here as a new component part of policy-related disciplines required for participatory governance. Calling for a specialization of "policy epistemics" to advance such practices, the second half of the book takes up issues related to deliberative empowerment, including the relation of technical and social knowledge, the interpretive dimensions of social meaning and multiple realities, the role of narrative knowledge and storylines policy inquiry, social learning, tacit knowledge, the design of discursive spaces, and the place of emotional expression in public deliberation.