Partisan Publics: Communication and Contention Across Brazilian Youth Activist Networks Paperback - 2009

From the rear cover

"Drawing on rich ethnographic data, cutting-edge relational methodologies, and deeply insightful interpretative readings of cultural discourse, Mische sets a new standard for how to conceptualize the dynamic analysis of an institutional field."--John W. Mohr, University of California, Santa Barbara

"With Partisan Publics, Ann Mische establishes herself at the forefront of research seeking solid foundations for a sociology of action and structure that takes seriously cultural projects and partisanship, networks and narratives, institutions and communicative action, and the creation and demise of publics."--Ronald L. Breiger, University of Arizona

"Partisan Publics is a stunningly original book. Mische takes us well beyond recognizing the mutual constitution of agency and structure and the generative importance of multiple networks, delving into what happens at the junctures of multiplicity that creates something new. Bridging formal and qualitative methodologies and refusing rigid categorization, Mische's argument and the narratives that bring it to life combine deep ethnographic knowledge with an equally compelling theoretical vision."--Margaret Keck, Johns Hopkins University

"Like the activists she studies, Mische is skilled in bridging fields in truly novel ways. Her book should be read by network theorists as much as cultural sociologists, political theorists as much as politicians, and activists as much as academics."--Francesca Polletta, University of California, Irvine

"Ann Mische shows us a buzzing, blooming world of civic life that challenges the commonsense idea that politics weakens civic virtue. The case of youth activism in Brazil teaches us a lot about how people juggle instrumental and civic-minded relationships as they cocreate public life. With brilliant theoretical moves and exciting methodological innovations, Partisan Publics will change the way we think about partisanship and citizenship."--Paul Lichterman, author of Elusive Togetherness: Church Groups Trying to Bridge America's Divisions

"Ann Mische's Partisan Publics is an intellectually sophisticated study of Brazilian youth politics and the emergence of multiple publics during a time of political transition and turbulence. Her original and innovative analysis of the ways that all politics involve a mix of the civic and the partisan transforms our understanding of these fundamental features of social and political life. Methodologically sophisticated and theoretically bold, Partisan Publics will challenge scholars studying social movements, institutions and networks, and democratic theory."--Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Swarthmore College