Glossary

Many of these concepts are contested or take different meanings in different contexts. These are working definitions rooted in the readings as a starting point.

Anti-politics: Ways of removing questions from political debate. An “argument stopper” (Purdy, p. 21) to “naturalize” one version of politics while excluding others from serious debate. Ways of evading politics, shutting down imagination and mobilization (e.g., by claiming that certain questions have been decided by nature) (Purdy, p. 31).

Democracy: A form of politics that strives for equal voice in debates and decision-making processes, and where a vote of all citizens plays a decisive role in decisions about what to do (Purdy, p. 49-50). In addition to equality of votes and voice, Purdy also includes an exemplary/prophetic dimension of democracy related to the ability of citizens to live in different ways (including protections for diversity in speech and religion that are often called liberal democracy) and thus serve as a model for future policy and politics.

Epistemic: Relating to knowledge. Epistemic authority (Purdy p. 172): claims about authority based on knowledge. Epistemic beliefs: beliefs about the source(s) and methods of generating knowledge. Epistemic community: a group of people with shared epistemic beliefs.

Ideology: (also called worldviews, ways of seeing, styles of environmental imagination): Sets of assumptions and values that structure decisions. We may be more aware of some of these assumptions and values than others, i.e., some may be explicit, and some may be implicit.

Paradigm: Similar to a worldview or ideology, but often focused less on explicit values and more on the questions and ways of generating knowledge that are seen as legitimate. The term emerged in the history of science as a way of describing the orientations of scientists to particular questions and methods. It has since become popular in places like business schools.

Politics: Ways of having and resolving debates over what to do together.