New book: Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities across the Globe

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From: "Xavier de Souza Briggs" <xbriggs at MIT.EDU>

dear colleagues --

i'm pleased to announce my new book, DEMOCRACY AS PROBLEM SOLVING: CIVIC 
CAPACITY IN COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE GLOBE, available from barnes & noble 
or other booksellers or directly from The MIT Press.

beyond offering a new, comparative perspective on democratic 
problem-solving, social capital, the civics of leading change at the 
local level, and governance and accountability in a changing world, the 
book's cases-in Brazil, India, South Africa, and the U.S.-encompass a 
range of domains that are of urgent concern around the globe, including 
uneven and unsustainable urban growth, economic restructuring in older 
city-regions, and investing in the healthy development of the next 
generation.

aimed at a broad audience, the book is suited for use in discussions, 
training, and coursework on community organizing and community 
development, urban politics and governance, urban development and 
sustainability, democratization, civil society and planning 
institutions, and social policy.

_____

Description and endorsements:

Complexity, division, mistrust, and "process paralysis" can thwart 
leaders and others when they tackle local challenges. In Democracy as 
Problem Solving, Xavier de Souza Briggs shows how civic capacity-the 
capacity to create and sustain smart collective action-can be developed 
and used. In an era of sharp debate over the conditions under which 
democracy can develop while broadening participation and building 
community, Briggs argues that understanding and building civic capacity 
is crucial for strengthening governance and changing the state of the 
world in the process. More than managing a contest among interest groups 
or spurring deliberation to reframe issues, democracy can be what the 
public most desires: a recipe for significant progress on important 
problems.



Briggs examines efforts in six cities, in the United States, Brazil, 
India, and South Africa, that face the millennial challenges of rapid 
urban growth, economic restructuring, and investing in the next 
generation. These challenges demand the engagement of government, 
business, and nongovernmental sectors. And the keys to progress include 
the ability to combine learning and bargaining continuously, forge 
multiple forms of accountability, and find ways to leverage the capacity 
of the grassroots and what Briggs terms the "grasstops," regardless of 
who initiates change or who participates over time. Civic capacity, 
Briggs shows, can-and must-be developed even in places that lack 
traditions of cooperative civic action.



"If John Dewey, the seminal twentieth-century theorist of democracy as 
the praxis of community problem-solving, returned to commission studies 
of how democracy might work in the twenty-first century, he would be 
pleased with this important new book. Briggs extracts lessons of 
importance to urban policy makers and civic activists everywhere."- 
Robert D. Putnam, Harvard University, author of Making Democracy Work 
and Bowling Alone



"This is a timely book about real world politics, not some abstract 
treatment that lends itself to a pet methodology. Democracy as Problem 
Solving steers clear of a cynical view of human relationships and proves 
mobilization can occur, given the right factors. Few books rival this 
book's achievement in its multilevel, multistage scope." - Clarence 
Stone, George Washington University, author of Regime Politics and 
Building Civic Capacity



"Our theories of democracy lag behind the deep changes in how it works, 
or fails, globally. Expectations have risen, creating huge potentials 
and challenges. These new rules about what is democratically legitimate 
are often more demanding than the physical or economic issues. Briggs 
charts global transformations and identifies dramatic success in 
unexpected quarters, from Salt Lake City to Mumbai and Cape Town. Social 
capital and democracy take on new meaning here as Briggs shows how they 
are subtly intertwined with political cultures and policy innovation." - 
Terry Nichols Clark, Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago


Xavier de Souza Briggs is Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban 
Planning at MIT. He has worked as a community planner and senior urban 
policy official. A faculty research fellow of Harvard's Hauser Center 
for Nonprofit Organizations, he is also the founder of The Community 
Problem-Solving Project @ MIT. His book The Geography of Opportunity: 
Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America (Brookings, 2005) won 
planning's top book award, the Paul Davidoff Award, from the Association 
of Collegiate Schools of Planning.