Liberalism and the Communitarian Critique: A Guide for the Perplexed

Neal, Patrick; Paris, David C.

doi:10.1017/s0008423900012695

Cited by 40 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Liberals stress individuals as autonomous and sees the individual as an atomised, unencumbered self, and relatively 'dissociated and separated from one another' (Walzer 1990, p. 11). Communitarians argue that this self is embedded in community and emphasises essentially shared relations characterised by strong bonds of loyalty, duties and responsibility and a collective identity (Neal and Paris 2009). These debates have particular import for my discussion as they address boundary problems in terms of political inclusion and exclusion by focusing on features, such as the rights and responsibilities that individuals have in relation to groups and others, and the extent of a sense of solidarity and intention to cooperate toward achieving shared purposes (Juviler and Stroschein 1999).…”

Section: Conceptualising Community Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project siting and the concept of community

Lesbirel¹

2011

Environmental Politics

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The siting of unwanted projects always involves conflict between developers and community interests. Yet the notion of community has been undertheorised in the siting literature. The concept of community is explored and related to the siting of risky projects. An analysis of seven siting cases from around the world suggests that the environmental spillover effects from projects often transcend local administrative boundaries and that the relevant unit of analysis will often be much broader than a local community defined administratively. Understanding the origins and management of siting conflicts requires a broader definition of community, one that incorporates not only administrative communities at different levels of government, but also one that encapsulates different social, environmental and even virtual communities. Politics will determine which community boundaries matter in any given siting dispute. IntroductionControversy over the placement of unwanted projects has become a feature of all nations. It is not difficult to find cases of siting disputes in democratic polities, but such conflicts are also increasingly observed in non-democratic states. Such conflicts are not only over the location of projects often regarded as highly risky, such as nuclear-related and toxic waste facilities, but are also over a range of other projects generally regarded as less risky including prisons, airports, medical facilities, industrial facilities and even renewable energy projects which are encouraged to facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It is hardly surprising that private and public developers are confronted with serious challenges in developing a variety of projects even though they may generate significant net benefits to society and may be in the national interest.

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Section: Conceptualising Community Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project siting and the concept of community

Lesbirel¹

2011

Environmental Politics

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“…and McCollough (1991). Neal and Paris (1990) neatly summarize that critique. They believe that lib eral political theory is excessively individualistic and insufficiently historicist.…”

Section: Communitarian Theory and Its Implications For Third-sector Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some Thoughts on Theory Development in the Voluntary and Nonprofit Sector

Scott

1995

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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The word theory has such a mystique about it. We tend to talk about theory as researchers much like our forebears would have discussed theology: with a mixture of awe, fascination, and cynicism. Each of us comes to the topic from the perspective of our own experience, having found theory alternatively helpful and 'dangerously misleading in our work.In setting out my own views on the current state of theory development as it applies to the voluntary and nonprofit sector, I hope readers will indulge an approach rooted in personal narrative-specifically, how 1 came to be interested in communitarian theory and its applicability to theory of the third sector. In explaining my own experience with theory, I hope to suggest some alternative approaches and perspectives that may provide limited guidance for future intellectual exploration. My venture in theory development evolved from interest in how thirdsector organizations interact with their external environments and with other third-sector and public sector organizational actors within their environment. When I looked at prevailing association and interorganizational theory as a way of explaining how voluntary organizations in Canada in 1989-1992 interacted with each other and their environments, 1 found their behavior to be irrational in theoretical terms. The organizations 1 was observing were either acting consistently with theory but not surviving or flourishing, or acting inconsistently with theory and finding more success.My simple conclusion was that theory was wrong or that the assumptions on which it was based were wrong, too narrowly delimited, or insufficient. I began reviewing several sets of theory intensively, beginning with interestgroup formation theory (OlsonCobb, Ross, Q Ross, 1977). These pioneering scholars were principally concerned with explaining motives and incentives for group formation, analjz-.ing organizational weaknesses in the third sector, and categorizing behavioral

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“…They do not necessarily constitute a unified group, and those thinkers often placed beneath the communitarian umbrella represent significantly different approaches in their critiques of liberalism (Neal & Paris, 1990). They do not necessarily constitute a unified group, and those thinkers often placed beneath the communitarian umbrella represent significantly different approaches in their critiques of liberalism (Neal & Paris, 1990).…”

Section: Communitarian Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mass Media as Discursive Network: Building on the Implications of Libertarian and Communitarian Claims for News Media Ethics Theory

Plaisance

2005

Commun Theory

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Media theorists have created competing normative ethical frameworks based on libertarian and communitarian philosophies, but because each approach essentially promotes different moral principles, they do not merely offer competing alternatives that essentially serve the same purpose, as some scholars have presumed. This analysis suggests that the two dominant theoretical approaches of libertarianism and communitarianism require further clarification and elaboration. The article seeks to clarify why the libertarian approach is insufficient as a basis for a news media ethic. Instead, it suggests a modified communitarian approach that advances media ethics theory by resisting a moralizing ethic, foregrounding the epistemic nature of moral philosophy as it relates to the communicative enterprise, and reconceptualizing the public sphere being served by the mass media as a population predicated on moral agency.Since the close of the 19th century, when researchers began proposing various theories to explain how the media work or ought to work, the debate over the purpose of a free press has continued to spawn volumes of books and competing moral claims. Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm proposed their four typologies of the press in the 1950s, and since then, most democratic-based media systems have been viewed primarily through two general theoretical prisms: the libertarian and the social responsibility approaches. The latter largely has been subsumed under a more refined approach that has come to be called communitarian thought. Peters (1989) argued that the debates about mass communication have really been national discussions on the role of the media-discussions, at bottom, about "the perils and possibilities of democracy" (p. 200). However, the continuing debate over the purpose of the media as defined by libertarianism and, more recently, communitarianism, has gen-Communication Theory Fifteen: Three

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Liberalism and the Communitarian Critique: A Guide for the Perplexed

Cited by 40 publications

References 7 publications

Project siting and the concept of community

Project siting and the concept of community

Some Thoughts on Theory Development in the Voluntary and Nonprofit Sector

The Mass Media as Discursive Network: Building on the Implications of Libertarian and Communitarian Claims for News Media Ethics Theory

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