Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies)

Nina Eliasoph's vivid portrait of American civic life reveals an intriguing culture of political avoidance. Despite the importance for democracy of open-ended political conversation among ordinary citizens, many Americans try hard to avoid appearing to care about politics. To discover how, where and why Americans create this culture of avoidance, the author accompanied suburban volunteers, activists, and recreation club members for over two years, listening to them talk - and avoid talking - about the wider world, together and in encounters with government, media, and corporate authorities. She shows how citizens create and express ideas in everyday life, contrasting their privately expressed convictions with their lack of public political engagement. Her book challenges received ideas about culture, power and democracy, while exposing the hard work of producing apathy. Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page ix) 1 The mysterious shrinking circle of concern (page 1) 2 Volunteers trying to make sense of the world Part 1: Trying to hide the public spirit (page 23) Part 2: The institutional setting for volunteering: the "Caring Adult Network" (page 47) 3 "Close to home" and "for the children": trying really hard not to care (page 64) 4 Humor, nostalgia, and commercial culture in the postmodern public sphere Part 1: Trying to create a community of private people (page 85) Part 2: Rituals of consumption (page 111) 5 Creating ignorance and memorizing facts: how Buffaloes understood politics (page 131) 6 Strenuous disengagement and cynical chic solidarity (page 154) 7 Activists carving out a place in the public sphere for discussion Part 1: "Is this a tangent?" activists in meetings (page 165) Part 2: Personal passion and dry facts in the public sphere: two sides of the same coin (page 188) 8 Newspapers in the cycle of political evaporation (page 210) 9 The evaporation of politics in the US public sphere (page 230) Appendix 1: Class in the public sphere (page 264) Appendix 2: Method (page 269) Notes (page 280) References (page 304) Index (page 320) Nina Eliasoph's vivid portrait of American civic life reveals an intriguing culture of political avoidance. Open-ended political conversation among ordinary citizens is said to be the fount of democracy, but many Americans try hard to avoid appearing to care about politics. To discover how, where, and why Americans create this culture of avoidance, the author accompanied suburban volunteers, activists, and recreation club members for two and a half years, listening to them talk - and avoid talking - about the wider world, both within their groups and in their encounters with government, the media, and corporate authorities. This is a unique book which challenges received ideas about culture, power, and democracy, while exposing the hard work of producing apathy. Its clear exposition of the qualitative methods used also makes it exceptionally useful for students of political and cultural sociology, communications, and politics. Civic groups are said to be the fount of democracy, but these vivid portraits of American life reveal an intriguing culture of political avoidance. Nina Eliasoph accompanied volunteers, activists and recreation club members, listening to them talk--and not talk--politics, in a range of private and public settings. Unlike interview-based studies of political participation and civic culture, Avoiding Politics shows how citizens create and communicate political ideas in everyday life, and the hard work it takes to produce apathy in a democracy. Civic groups are said to be the fount of democracy, but these vivid portraits of American life reveal an intriguing culture of political avoidance. Nina Eliasoph accompanied volunteers, activists and recreation club members, listening to them talk -- and not talk -- politics, in a range of private and public settings. Nina Eliasoph. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 304-319) And Index.