Communicative micropolitics: A story of claims and discourses

Abstract
This paper examines the communicative dynamics of the public sphere as represented in a public meeting about major strategic planning proposals in a metro‐politan area in Western Australia. It illustrates the way statements made serve to build up arguments about issues and make claims for policy attention to create a base of mutual knowledge among citizens’ representatives and establish a shared foundation for the mobilization of action against state planning policies. It also shows that an oppositional stance was not an inevitable outcome. Citizens were turned into opponents rather than collaborators by the manner in which they were treated by formal government and the planning processes adopted. Drawing on ideas from Habermas, Forester and Innes, the paper emphasizes the dimensions of communicative dynamics which need to be understood if a confrontational outcome is to be avoided.

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