Struggles over expertise: Practices of de- and re-politicization in participatory democracy

Abstract

There is growing concern among democracy scholars that participatory innovations pose a de-politicizing threat rather than an asset for democracy. This article tackles this concern by providing a more nuanced understanding of how politicization and de-politicization take shape in participatory initiatives. Informed by post-structuralist democratic theory and based on ethnographic research on participatory initiatives with marginalized people, the article examines how actors limit and open up possibilities to participate and engage in debates about these confines of participation. By focusing on struggles concerning the definition of expertise, the article identifies a threefold character of politicization as a practice: 1) illuminating the boundaries that define the actors’ possibilities, 2) making a connection between these boundaries and specific value-bases, and 3) imagining an alternative normative basis.