The Shape of Democracy: Building Political Spaces in a Digital Age

FAIN: FT-265418-19

Jennifer Forestal
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey (Galloway, NJ 08205-9441)

Writing and revising a book for publication about the challenges that digital technologies such as social media pose for fostering democratic practice.

The Shape of Democracy is a book that deals directly with a pressing contemporary problem: how have digital technologies changed, or challenged, the traditional practices of democracy? Using examples from Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter, I show how the problems often associated with digital technologies exemplify three enduring challenges of democratic politics--the problems of 1) an expanding population, 2) self-segregation, and 3) instability. Ultimately, I argue that these three problems can be overcome, in whole or in part, by building digital spaces that meet three criteria: 1) they must have clearly marked and relatively limited boundaries, 2) those boundaries must be flexible, and 3) the resulting spaces must be stable over time.

Media Coverage

Guest Post: Jennifer Forestal writes about her new book Designing for Democracy: How to Build Community in Digital Environments (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Jennifer Forestal
Publication: Andrew Chadwick Blog
Date: 12/7/2021
Abstract: Summary promoting Designing for Democracy
URL: http://https://www.andrewchadwick.com/blog/2021/12/07/guest-post-jennifer-forestal-writes-about-her-new-book-designing-for-democracy-how-to-build-community-in-digital-environments

Book Review: Designing for democracy: How to build community in digital environments Jennifer Forestal Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022, 240pp, ISBN: 9780197568767 (Review)
Author(s): Alfred Moore
Publication: Contemporary Political Theory
Date: 11/9/2022
URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41296-022-00600-6

Book Review: Designing for Democracy: How to Build Community in Digital Environments. By Jennifer Forestal. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 232p. $99.00 cloth. (Review)
Author(s): Callum Ingram
Publication: Perspectives on Politics
Date: 12/12/2022
URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/designing-for-democracy-how-to-build-community-in-digital-environments-by-jennifer-forestal-new-york-oxford-university-press-2022-232p-9900-cloth/C71B054357A361A887A5ABEEAD22B759

Designing for Democracy How to Build Community in Digital Environments OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2021 (Media Coverage)
Author(s):
Publication: New Books Network podcast
Date: 1/19/2023
Abstract: Political Theorist Jennifer Forestal’s new book is a fascinating exploration of contemporary democracy and how it operates in different spaces. Forestal’s avenue into the question of democracy and the space in which it functions comes out of the idea of how spaces are designed and for what reasons. This idea of built environments—be they city centers in urban areas, software architecture, or the existence and width of sidewalks—contribute to how we, as individuals and community members, operate in those spaces. Forestal is paying particular attention to participatory democracy, where community members come together to solve problems collectively. Designing for Democracy: How to Build Community in Digital Environments (Oxford UP, 2021)weaves together the concrete, the actual spaces where we can gather together or where we are pushed apart, and the theoretical, the way democracy, as a concept, draws on the will of the people to govern themselves.
URL: https://newbooksnetwork.com/designing-for-democracy

Associated Products

Designing for Democracy: How to Build Community in Digital Environments (Book)
Title: Designing for Democracy: How to Build Community in Digital Environments
Author: Jennifer Forestal
Abstract: How should we "fix" digital technologies to support democracy instead of undermining it? In Designing for Democracy, Jennifer Forestal argues that accurately evaluating the democratic potential of digital spaces means studying how the built environment--a primary component of our "modern public square"--structures our activity, shapes our attitudes, and supports the kinds of relationships and behaviors democracy requires. While many scholars and practitioners are attentive to the role of design in shaping behavior, they have yet to fully engage with the question of what structures are required to support democratic communities--and how to build them. Forestal closes this gap by providing a new theory of democratic space. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including architecture, psychology, and the history of political thought, she argues that "democratic spaces" must be designed with three environmental characteristics--boundaries, durability, and flexibility--that, taken together, afford users the ability to engage in fundamental civic practices. Through extended analyses of Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, Forestal shows precisely how well these digital platforms meet the criteria for democratic spaces, or whether they do so at all. The result is a more nuanced analysis of the democratic communities that form--or fail to emerge--in these spaces, as well as more concrete suggestions for how to improve them. In connecting the built environment, digital technologies, and democratic theory, Designing for Democracy provides blueprints for democracy in a digital age.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/designing-for-democracy-9780197568767?cc=us&lang=en&
Primary URL Description: Product page at Oxford University Press
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780197568767
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Prizes

Don K. Price Award for Best Book in Science, Technology, and Politics
Date: 6/1/2023
Organization: APSA Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics section
Abstract: The Don K. Price Award recognizes the best book on science, technology, and politics published in the last year

---