The Participant: A Century of Participation in Four Stories

"In this thoughtful, witty, and incisive book, Kelty goes down the rabbit hole of participation and--against all odds--emerges in a wonderfully unfamiliar land, where old, worn-out concepts acquire new and tantalizing meaning. Most important of all, we meet The Participant, that central but elusive figure of twentieth-century democratic politics, who teaches us to appreciate the full experiential weight of partaking in a collective. An essential book to understand the ephemerality of contemporary citizenship, and an ideal vantage point from which to imagine democratic forms of life yet to come."--Javier Lezaun, University of Oxford
"For many, participation is cast as a virtue worthy of praise and emulation. Why and how has participation acquired the status of primary cultural ideal? In this far-reaching account, Kelty probes this question by examining participation's social life across the long twentieth century as it incarnates in four radically distinct areas of society. Witty, empirically rich, and analytically sophisticated, it will forever alter how you approach the contemporary politics of participation."--Gabriella Coleman, McGill University
"Finally, a book that undoes the myth that we owe the 'participatory turn' in culture and society to digital innovation. Through a special kind of anthropological design history invented for the purpose, Kelty showcases a set of decisive transformations of participation in diverse social environments and makes clear why the drive towards participation has become irreversible today."--Noortje Marres, University of Warwick
"Unexpected, eclectic, and buoyantly incisive--this is a truly original book. Read it and you will never think of participation the same way again."--Peter Redfield, author of Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Borders