Overview

"This title provides thoughtful case studies on the power and responsibility of citizens to affect public spheres.""""Vernacular Voices"""" addresses the role of citizen voices in steering a democracy through an examination of the rhetoric of publics - active segments of society that influence the general climate of public dialogue - and of the associated public spheres and public opinion. Gerard A. Hauser maintains that the interaction between everyday and official discourse discloses how active members of a complex society discover and clarify their shared interests and shape their opinions on issues of common interest.This book sets forth a conceptual framework, called publics theory, for understanding how the rhetorical character of formal and informal communication bears on the spheres in which publics form and the quality of the opinions they express. Hauser extends his discussion through four case studies. The first explores the role of cultural memory and narrative in shaping the recent political transformations in Central Europe by contrasting events in Poland and the former Yugoslavia. The other case studies explore attempts to redefine the character of the public sphere by the so-called Meese Commission Report, the Carter administration's technological understanding of public opinion during the Iranian hostage situation of 1979-80, and the dialogue of the American people with Franklin D. Roosevelt on the meaning of America as expressed in letters encouraging him to stand for a third term in office."

Full Product Details

Author:   Gerard A. Hauser
Publisher:   University of South Carolina Press
Imprint:   University of South Carolina Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.522kg
ISBN:  

9781570037887

ISBN 10:   1570037884
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   30 October 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of print, replaced by POD  
We will order this item for you from a manufatured on demand supplier.

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Reviews

This diverting, timely study of what it means to have a voice in civil society and how it is achieved offers new conceptions of complex public spheres... This title would be apt to use as a textbook, given its wisdom, orderly and clear presentation, and interdisciplinary approach. -- Choice

And insisting upon seeing vernacular exchanges as important forms of political discourse is part and parcel of Hauser's very useful project of shifting attention away from a non-existent public sphere to the real publics in which people spend much of their lives. That project is useful for a variety of reasons, but one of the most striking is that it provides a much more hopeful view of political discourse in democracy. -- Rhetoric Society Quarterly Gerard Hauser's Vernacular Voices is an ambitious, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking theoretical discussion of public opinion and the public sphere. Hauser rightly disputes the authority we grant to opinion polls, and he aspires to develop a rhetorical alternative for discovering and communicating public opinion. -- Argumentation and Advocacy This diverting, timely study of what it means to have a voice in civil society and how it is achieved offers new conceptions of complex public spheres... This title would be apt to use as a textbook, given its wisdom, orderly and clear presentation, and interdisciplinary approach. -- Choice Reviews

"And insisting upon seeing vernacular exchanges as important forms of political discourse is part and parcel of Hauser's very useful project of shifting attention away from a non-existent public sphere to the real publics in which people spend much of their lives. That project is useful for a variety of reasons, but one of the most striking is that it provides a much more hopeful view of political discourse in democracy. -- ""Rhetoric Society Quarterly"" Gerard Hauser's Vernacular Voices is an ambitious, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking theoretical discussion of public opinion and the public sphere. Hauser rightly disputes the authority we grant to opinion polls, and he aspires to develop a rhetorical alternative for discovering and communicating public opinion. -- ""Argumentation and Advocacy"" This diverting, timely study of what it means to have a voice in civil society and how it is achieved offers new conceptions of complex public spheres... This title would be apt to use as a textbook, given its wisdom, orderly and clear presentation, and interdisciplinary approach. -- ""Choice Reviews"""

Author Information

Gerard A. Hauser is professor of communication and College Professor of Distinction at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is the author of Introduction to Rhetorical Theory and editor of Philosophy and Rhetoric in Dialogue: Redrawing Their Intellectual Landscape. He also edits the journal Philosophy and Rhetoric.

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