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After the public turn: composition, counterpublics, and the citizen bricoleur

Date

2013

Authors

Farmer, Frank, author
Utah State University Press, publisher

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Abstract

In After the Public Turn, author Frank Farmer argues that counterpublics and the people who make counterpublics--citizen bricoleurs"--deserve a more prominent role in our scholarship and in our classrooms. Encouraging students to understand and consider resistant or oppositional discourse is a viable route toward mature participation as citizens in a democracy. Farmer examines two very different kinds of publics, cultural and disciplinary, and discusses two counterpublics within those broad categories: zine discourses and certain academic discourses. By juxtaposing these two significantly different kinds of publics, Farmer suggests that each discursive world can be seen, in its own distinct way, as a counterpublic, an oppositional social formation that has a stake in widening or altering public life as we know it. Drawing on major figures in rhetoric and cultural theory, Farmer builds his argument about composition teaching and its relation to the public sphere, leading to a more sophisticated understanding of public life and a deeper sense of what democratic citizenship means for our time.--Provided by publisher.

Description

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Rights Access

Access is limited to the Adams State University, Colorado State University, Colorado State University Pueblo, Community College of Denver, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University Denver, Regis University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver, University of Northern Colorado, University of Wyoming, Utah State University and Western Colorado University communities only.

Subject

Social movements
Dissenters
Individualism
Public interest
Civil society
Citizenship
Deliberative democracy
Political participation
English language -- Composition and exercises -- Social aspects
English language -- Rhetoric -- Study and teaching -- Social aspects

Citation

Associated Publications