Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation

Citizenship has long been a central topic among educators, philosophers, and political theorists. Using the phrase “rhetorical citizenship” as a unifying perspective, Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation aims to develop an understanding of citizenship as a discursive phenomenon, arguing that discourse is not prefatory to real action but in many ways constitutive of civic engagement. To accomplish this, the book brings together, in a cross-disciplinary effort, contributions by scholars in fields that rarely intersect. For the most part, discussions of citizenship have focused on aspects that are central to the “liberal” tradition of social thought—that is, questions of the freedoms and rights of citizens and groups. This collection gives voice to a “republican” conception of citizenship. Seeing participation and debate as central to being a citizen, this tradition looks back to the Greek city-states and republican Rome. Citizenship, in this sense of the word, is rhetorical citizenship. Rhetoric is thus at the core of being a citizen. Aside from the editors, the contributors are John Adams, Paula Cossart, Jonas Gabrielsen, Jette Barnholdt Hansen, Kasper Møller Hansen, Sine Nørholm Just, Ildikó Kaposi, William Keith, Bart van Klink, Marie Lund Klujeff, Manfred Kraus, Oliver W. Lembcke, Berit von der Lippe, James McDonald, Niels Møller Nielsen, Tatiana Tatarchevskiy, Italo Testa, Georgia Warnke, Kristian Wedberg, and Stephen West.

“Anyone who has been reading in rhetoric and democracy and has an interest in ways of pushing the deliberative democracy model forward will agree that this volume enters that conversation, addresses key issues, and offers fresh insights and approaches that warrant further work of this kind.”—Robert L. Ivie, Indiana University, “At the start of his presidential campaign in February 2007, Barack Obama issued a call for people to reclaim the meaning of citizenship. This timely volume of international collaboration, with its insights drawn from a range of disciplines, is a valuable contribution to such a recovery and the reflections involved. Carefully edited and introduced by Christian Kock and Lisa S. Villadsen, the book brings to life the ‘rhetorical citizen’ as an active deliberator fully engaged in public affairs. Its theoretical insights and practical cases, along with the gathering of perspectives from areas not often brought to a common focus in this way, recommend it to any serious student of deliberative democracy and to all who might appreciate the powerful role that constructive rhetoric can play in the building of informed societies.”—Christopher Tindale, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Research in Reasoning, University of Windsor, “Ranging widely and effectively in time, space, cases, and theory, Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation shows how and why rhetoric must be central to the practice of politics and citizenship in contemporary democracies. An impressive and strikingly original set of contributions sheds new light on the possibilities for public deliberation.”—John Dryzek, Australian National University, “This book brings new arguments into an already lively scholarly conversation about public deliberation. The editors and authors bring to the forefront important rhetorical perspectives that previous work on deliberation has overlooked.”—John Gastil, Pennsylvania State University, “Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation is a comprehensive and provocative assessment of the rhetorical nature of citizenship. Drawing together an impressive group of scholars from various disciplines and countries, Christian Kock and Lisa Villadsen have crafted a volume that is essential reading for scholars interested in the conversations surrounding agency, citizenship, and the prospects for a democratic society.”—Kendall R. Phillips, Syracuse University

Christian Kock is Professor of Rhetoric in the Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication at the University of Copenhagen. Lisa S. Villadsen is Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Rhetoric in the Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication at the University of Copenhagen.