Participation as social inquiry and social learning (reviewed paper)

The extent to which participatory processes are deliberative social inquiry by animated citizens organized in communities of inquiry and engaged in civic science is a measure of the degree to which social institutions reveal a public philosophy of democracy. This paper examines the argument that public participation creates the conditions for social inquiry when a polity defines itself, organizes itself,creates the necessary information for social choices, and exercises its responsibility to make public judgments and exercise public accountability.