Bridging the Civil: Bridge-building, Depolarization, and Civility

• In Event: 40251 - Political Engagement

Abstract

Over the last decade, ever-increasing polarization has exacerbated political divisions threatening both the civil sphere and democracy itself. Yet, one of the central features of the civil sphere is its ability to allow for civil repair and incorporation. Civil sphere theory (CST) highlights the importance of the micro and macro link especially as it pertains to meaningful social interaction that facilitates inclusion. In the United States, concern over democracy’s future has drawn a range of actors working to reverse course and renew the civil. Among them, self-described “bridge-building” organizations aiming to counter affective polarization have proliferated. Explicitly drawing on social psychology’s contact theory, these civic organization bring together people from across the political aisle to rediscover shared interests and values. Bridging organizations aim to bring people together, though their goals are as much about personal reform as they are social. Through highly-scripted workshops based on marital therapy, participants are prompted to reorient inward to reflect on their own position and to “depolarize from within.” This paper examines bridge-building through an ethnographic case study of one such organization. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with participants and group leaders (N=14), the paper aims to illuminate how such groups imagine and instantiate an ideal civil citizen. A discussion of bridging organizations’ approach to civility is framed in reference to Edward Shils (1991) with the aim of unpacking the incorporative potential and repressive, exclusionary shortcomings of such efforts.

Author

• Emily B. Campbell, Rhode Island College