Democratizing inequalities : dilemmas of the new public participation / edited by Caroline W. Lee, Michael McQuarrie, and Edward T. Walker.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-279) and index.

PART I: Introduction -- 1 Rising Participation and Declining Democracy -- PART II: Participation and the Reproduction of Inequality -- 2 Civic-izing Markets: Selling Social Profits in Public Deliberation -- 3 Workers’ Rights as Human Rights? Solidarity Campaigns and the Anti-Sweatshop Movement -- 4 Legitimating the Corporation through Public Participation -- PART III: The Production of Authority and Legitimacy -- 5 No Contest: Participatory Technologies and the Transformation of Urban Authority -- 6 The Fiscal Sociology of Public Consultation -- 7 Structuring Electoral Participation: The Formalization of Democratic New Media Campaigning, 2000 – 2008 -- 8 Patient, Parent, Advocate, Investor: Entrepreneurial Health Activism from Research to Reimbursement -- PART IV: Unintended Consequences and New Opportunities -- 9 Spirals of Perpetual Potential: How Empowerment Projects’ Noble Missions Tangle in Everyday Interaction -- 10 Becoming a Best Practice: Neoliberalism and the Curious Case of Participatory Budgeting -- 11 The Social Movement Society, the Tea Party, and the Democratic Deficit -- 12 Public Deliberation and Political Contention -- PART V: Conclusion -- 13 Realizing the Promise of Public Participation in an Age of Inequality

"Opportunities to "have your say," "get involved," and "join the conversation" are everywhere in public life. From crowdsourcing and town hall meetings to government experiments with social media, participatory politics increasingly seem like a revolutionary antidote to the decline of civic engagement and the thinning of the contemporary public sphere. Many argue that, with new technologies, flexible organizational cultures, and a supportive policymaking context, we now hold the keys to large-scale democratic revitalization. Democratizing Inequalities shows that the equation may not be so simple. Modern societies face a variety of structural problems that limit potentials for true democratization, as well as vast inequalities in political action and voice that are not easily resolved by participatory solutions. Popular participation may even reinforce elite power in unexpected ways. Resisting an oversimplified account of participation as empowerment, this collection of essays brings together a diverse range of leading scholars to reveal surprising insights into how dilemmas of the new public participation play out in politics and organizations. Through investigations including fights over the authenticity of business-sponsored public participation, the surge of the Tea Party, the role of corporations in electoral campaigns, and participatory budgeting practices in Brazil, Democratizing Inequalities seeks to refresh our understanding of public participation and trace the reshaping of authority in today's political environment"-- Provided by publisher.