The Everyday Maker: A New Challenge to Democratic Governance

Abstract

A powerful feature of Putnam’s social capital framework is the attention it directs towards a critical question for democracies: How is democratic civic engagement created, sustained and expanded (cf Levi, 1996, p. 52) However, Putnam’s investigation into this problem neglects considerations concerning the consequences of the ongoing transition of democratic government into democratic governance. As a result, his evaluation of the state of affairs of Western democracy becomes more gloomy than need be. A study of democratic governance and civic engagement in Denmark draws the contours of a new political identity, the Everyday Maker. The Everyday Maker represents a new form of political engagement, which attempts to combine individuality and commonality in new relations of self-and co-governance. Seen from Putnam’s government perspective there is a serious risk that the researcher comes to ignore the political potential of the Everyday Makers and see them as nothing but individuals “bowling alone.”