Participatory Politics: Next-Generation Tactics to Remake Public Spheres

Acknowledgments

I am so grateful to be part of the following network of researchers who codeveloped the concept of participatory politics offered here, produced key studies, and shared crucial feedback as I prepared this piece: Danielle Allen, Cathy Cohen, Jennifer Earl, Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Howard Gardner, Mimi Ito, Henry Jenkins, Joseph Kahne, and Ethan Zuckerman.

The work could not have happened without the exceptional vision and support of Connie Yowell and An-Me Chung from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative.

Sangita Shresthova, Ellen Middaugh, and Carrie James—all leaders of Youth and Participatory Politics study teams—have been enormously generous and thoughtful in guiding me through their projects and sharing the most striking early findings they and their colleagues have discovered in the last few years of concerted research.

Ellen Seiter, the editor of this MIT reports series, has read and reread the piece at various stages and seriously pushed my thinking—thank you! Pendarvis Harshaw, Rebecca Martin, and Shirin Vossoughi shared reflections that have been instrumental in my efforts to get it right.

Of course, I take full responsibility for all that is here.