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dc.contributor.advisorGeorge, Ann L.
dc.contributor.authorIten, Michelleen_US
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-10T18:20:45Z
dc.date.available2015-08-10T18:20:45Z
dc.date.created2015en_US
dc.date.issued2015en_US
dc.identifiercat-002404244
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.tcu.edu/handle/116099117/8637
dc.description.abstractAmid neoliberal and technocratic threats to equality and human flourishing, Rhetoric and Composition needs to broaden what we recognize as democratic rhetorical action. We often invoke democratic ideals to authorize our work, but too frequently, we assume stable meanings for such concepts as democracy" and "civic discourse," neglecting to interrogate the particular definitions we rely upon and as a result restricting what we research, criticize, and teach as the rhetorical actions that support democracy. I argue we need to reconceive democracy itself by replacing theories centered on deliberation and public sphere studies with specifically rhetorical theories grounded in our discipline's approaches to human relations, ethics, and political life. This dissertation empowers such work by providing a framework of heuristics we can use to theorize multiple understandings of democracy from the standpoint of Rhetoric and Composition.^I develop the framework by using a method called transformational/practical theory-building and drawing on concepts from Athenian demokratia; from political philosophers Sheldon Wolin, Josiah Ober, Chantal Mouffe, and John Dewey; and from rhetoricians Aristotle, Cicero (De officiis), Chaim Perelman, and Kenneth Burke. The framework of heuristics guides theorists and teachers to engage the three key issues around which rhetorical understandings of democracy should be built: how best to translate demos and kratos, to define democracy's nature, and to conceive political virtues. From this framework, I develop a theory of democracy as a dynamic social energy, manifested when we citizens, individually as well as collectively, grip power in order to enact equality, and when we embody the political virtues of relational equality and substantial efficiency (using all available means to enact democratic power) in our everyday rhetorical actions.^I then build on my findings to trace the democratic and rhetorical contours of the practice of reflection, illustrating how my new theory of democracy, developed from the standpoint of Rhetoric and Composition, can enlarge our notions of what counts as rhetorical action for democracy. I conclude by calling for a recognized subfield of democracy studies in Rhetoric and Composition and describing how my framework and theory provide several concrete directions for enriching rhetorical theory, history, and pedagogy."--Abstract.
dc.format.mediumFormat: Onlineen_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher[Fort Worth, Tex.] : Texas Christian University,en_US
dc.relation.ispartofTexas Christian University dissertationen_US
dc.relation.ispartofUMI thesis.en_US
dc.relation.ispartofTexas Christian University dissertation.en_US
dc.relation.requiresMode of access: World Wide Web.en_US
dc.relation.requiresSystem requirements: Adobe Acrobat reader.en_US
dc.subject.lcshDeliberative democracy.en_US
dc.subject.lcshRhetoric Political aspects.en_US
dc.subject.lcshPolitical science Philosophy.en_US
dc.subject.lcshRhetoric Study and teaching.en_US
dc.titlePolitics for our making: theorizing lived democracy in rhetoric and compositionen_US
dc.typeTexten_US
etd.degree.departmentDepartment of English
etd.degree.levelDoctoral
local.collegeAddRan College of Liberal Arts
local.departmentEnglish
local.academicunitDepartment of English
dc.type.genreDissertation
local.subjectareaEnglish
etd.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy
etd.degree.grantorTexas Christian University


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