Urban Empowerment as Public Participation: The Atlanta Project and Jürgen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action
The Atlanta Project (TAP) was a massive community empowerment program initiated by former President Jimmy Carter in 1990. TAP attempted to empower poor communities in Atlanta by building more inclusive communities of discourse in the public sphere. As such, TAP serves as a useful case study to test...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
Society of Christian Ethics
2000
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| In: |
The annual of the Society of Christian Ethics
Year: 2000, Volume: 20, Pages: 349-368 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Atlanta Project (TAP) was a massive community empowerment program initiated by former President Jimmy Carter in 1990. TAP attempted to empower poor communities in Atlanta by building more inclusive communities of discourse in the public sphere. As such, TAP serves as a useful case study to test the explanatory power of Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative action. The essay argues, first, that the relationship of communicative action and strategic action is exceedingly complex in actual organizational life. Institutions from the economic sector may model communicative action, just as voluntary organizations may employ shared labor as a means of building solidarity. Second, TAP's experience reveals that while religious discourse is not rational action, in some communities it may help engender the lifeworld solidarity that enables public discourse to take place. Finally, study of The Atlanta Project suggests that Habermas's concerns about the hegemony of expert cultures are well-founded. TAP found that lasting empowerment required the input of experts, but also that it needed to guard against their tendency to usurp decision-making power from local communities. |
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| ISSN: | 2372-9023 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Society of Christian Ethics, The annual of the Society of Christian Ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5840/asce20002023 |