Civic Communion: The Rhetoric of Community Building

by David E. Procter

Overview

How does community arise in and exist through communication? Blending theory and case studies, Civic Communion looks at community-building in rural America and how civic-minded people come together through a variety of ways, such as hosting and attending festivals, addressing conflict, planning the community, and maintaining heritage museums. David E. Procter's insightful work reveals a specific and significant form of community 'talk' that serves to build and sustain community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742537033
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	05/12/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	6.42(w) x 8.96(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

David E. Procter is associate professor of speech communication and director of the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Part 3 Part I: Orientations and Beginnings Chapter 4 1. The Connection of Communication and Community Chapter 5 2. In Search of Rural Community Part 6 Part II: Civic Communion Case Studies Chapter 7 3. Performing Gender through Local Festival Chapter 8 4. Building Community through Strategic Planning Chapter 9 5. Constructing Community from Conflict Chapter 10 6. Exhibiting Collective Memory Chapter 11 7. Infusing "Spirit" into Community Building Part 12 Part III: Community-Building Lessons Chapter 13 8. Lessons Learned Chapter 14 Works Cited Chapter 15 Index Chapter 16 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Procter is a gifted ethnographer and rhetorician who makes highly productive use of those gifts to make sense of, and to story, the relational, symbolic, and communal aspects of building a shared sense of time, place, and meanings among rural people in the heartland. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the study of real people using everyday communication to create meaning in communities.

Bud Goodall

Procter's book is a perceptive contemporary account of rural community and rural community development processes in the Great Plains, with applicability beyond this region. Moreover, he has added a valuable tool to our kit of heuristic devices for facilitating community development processes.

Great Plains Research

Civic Communication is a pleasure to read. It represents a wealth of scholarship, but it is David Procter's unmistakable voice that brings to life the people and their performances as they enact the bonds and practices of civic communion. I find it inspirational and a call to the discipline to pursue this most fruitful line of contribution. Graduate students will benefit from the careful research, undergraduates from its life-expanding vision, and both from the deep sense of civic responsibility that it imparts.

James A. Anderson