"Why Politics Matters"
Why Politics Matters is a relatively new book (published over the summer) written by Gerry Stoker.
In it, he makes the argument, both strongly and well, that engagement in politics is a good thing and potentially what could and shouldn't change to make participation and engagement stronger and better. It's not a politics text book per se, but a book about civic engagement, with both Politics and politics as two aspects of that.
Jack Straw's recent bleatings against the rise of single issue politics in favour of party politics, and his arguments against Theyworkforyou.com seem to be the antithesis of this. It was interesting to hear Straw talk at an event in Manchester a few weeks back, and watch the reactions from the "Young Fabians" (and others, although it was a YF event) in the room. While there was agreement, there also seemed to be a sense of bemusement with what he was saying.
Gerry's argument pushes engagement as a good thing - "Politics matters because collective decisions matter" - but recognises that there are different types of politics, and that this can be considered a strength, not a weakness.
Hopefully the omission of any reference to anything done by mySociety and associated projects will be corrected in a future edition. From an email off the author, it seems that it was through lack of awareness of the developments that meant no reference was included.
In summary, it's a useful read that brings a lot of ideas together in a very readable manner - something suggestible to someone interested in why we/I do what we/I do as "further reading" with the added bonus of it being an academic text (albeit aimed at the general reader).
In it, he makes the argument, both strongly and well, that engagement in politics is a good thing and potentially what could and shouldn't change to make participation and engagement stronger and better. It's not a politics text book per se, but a book about civic engagement, with both Politics and politics as two aspects of that.
Jack Straw's recent bleatings against the rise of single issue politics in favour of party politics, and his arguments against Theyworkforyou.com seem to be the antithesis of this. It was interesting to hear Straw talk at an event in Manchester a few weeks back, and watch the reactions from the "Young Fabians" (and others, although it was a YF event) in the room. While there was agreement, there also seemed to be a sense of bemusement with what he was saying.
Gerry's argument pushes engagement as a good thing - "Politics matters because collective decisions matter" - but recognises that there are different types of politics, and that this can be considered a strength, not a weakness.
Hopefully the omission of any reference to anything done by mySociety and associated projects will be corrected in a future edition. From an email off the author, it seems that it was through lack of awareness of the developments that meant no reference was included.
In summary, it's a useful read that brings a lot of ideas together in a very readable manner - something suggestible to someone interested in why we/I do what we/I do as "further reading" with the added bonus of it being an academic text (albeit aimed at the general reader).
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home