{"product_id":"publics-in-action-the-self-making-of-civic-life-hardcover","title":"Publics in Action: The Self-Making of Civic Life - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eChristopher Kutz\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat does it mean for something to be \u003cem\u003epublic\u003c\/em\u003e? It's not always clear what this ever-important word means. Are we using the same idea of \"public\" when we talk about public education, or public safety, or public works? And how should we think about ourselves as members of \"the public\"? Who belongs to the public? There are many different groups to consider: citizens and non-citizens who work and live together, the people of future generations, people in other countries who are affected by the gases we pump into our atmosphere. What \"public\" means can get messy. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003cem\u003ePublics in Action\u003c\/em\u003e, Christopher Kutz looks at how people should and do come together to create their shared institutions, and the lessons we can learn from one another. He argues that a healthy, dynamic public takes itself seriously as a subject of action, not just the passive beneficiary of a state institution. Kutz builds the book around an extended metaphor: we should understand ourselves as a public that \u003cem\u003eimprovises\u003c\/em\u003e: listening to each other as we riff off shared standards and so creating something new, responsive to the scene and the moment. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublics in Action\u003c\/em\u003e makes use of the author's extensive personal experience in public institutions, and in democracies around the world, with a particular focus on the U.S., represented primarily by California -- arguably the world's most successful multi-cultural democracy -- as well as France, and Norway, each of which provides instructive models of healthy publics in action (and some examples of dysfunction). Merging political philosophy and comparative politics, this book will leave both lay and professional readers not only with an enlivened sense of the possibilities of public life, but with new ideas about how we might build the shared future we desperately need.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChristopher Kutz\u003c\/strong\u003e is the C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law in the Jurisprudence \u0026amp; Social Policy Program and (by courtesy) Philosophy and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has held visiting professorships at Columbia, Stanford and Sciences-Po, Paris. His previous books include \u003cem\u003eComplicity: Ethics and Law for a Collective Age\u003c\/em\u003e (Cambridge, 2000) and \u003cem\u003eOn War and Democracy\u003c\/em\u003e (Princeton, 2016).\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 296\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.18 x 8.49 x 5.82 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 27, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52725703934259,"sku":"9780197692769","price":75.31,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/46wFBmHPgg9780197692769.webp?v=1763718910","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/en-ca\/products\/publics-in-action-the-self-making-of-civic-life-hardcover","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}