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124 Communication Theory & Research
‘affect’ has a proper part to play in determining the ends that people wish to
achieve in politics, but those ends will only be socially defensible and viably
attainable if they are also shaped by a cognitive awareness of surrounding
interests and circumstances. Similarly, although the conditions and tensions of
everyday life in people’s domestic, workplace and neighbourhood milieux raise
many issues that are suited to public discussion, it would be highly unfortunate
if the sphere of official politics was left to the activities of highly motivated and
better informed elites. As William A. Gamson (1998) has recently declared in a
brilliantly all-encompassing phrase, we should look for ways of ‘integrating the
language of the lifeworld into the policy discourse’.

Note

The terms of this response benefited greatly from consultation with Michael Gurevitch.

References

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