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In his chapter on "Dewey's Vision of Radical Democracy" in The Pragmatic Turn (2010), Richard Bernstein clarifies the larger philosophical frame- work of John Dewey's ethos of democratic community participation. He argues that Dewey's proposal is "made in the living everyday reality" in which various publics now seek to "re-create by deliberate and deter- mined endeavor the kind of democracy which in its origin...was largely the product of a fortunate combination of men and circumstances' (Dewey, LW 14, p. 225; Bernstein: 80). Further, Bernstein argues that Dewey's analysis is correct and useful in understanding the need for effec- tive citizen participation today because, as Dewey stressed in The Public and Its Problems, "Unless local communal life can be restored, the public cannot adequately solve its most urgent problem: to find and identify itself" (Dewey LW 2, p. 370; Bernstein, 2010, p. 83). However, Bernstein warns, Dewey's vision of radical democracy "requires a robust democratic culture in which the attitudes, emotions, and habits that constitute a democratic ethos are embodied.... We must find new ways to revitalize local communities and foster the development of multiple publics where citizens can engage in debate and deliberation together" (2010, p. 86). Drawing on my own work as a sociologist and urban planner, my purpose here is to advance Bernstein's project of bridging from partici- patory and deliberative democratic theory into culture-transformative public decision-making practices by highlighting what we can learn from

DOI: 10.1057/9781137352705_9

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