ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book argues that the workings of political culture need to be explored by examining humans interacting civically, culturally and politically. It shows that the use of social media is shaped by the social relations of their civic use and by the context surrounding a particular topic. The book explains how social media use is interacting with the ways people are finding to express the issues that they feel are important. It examines the question of how open, user–generated and networked communication media facilitate civic communication. Drawing on a range of developments around the concept, the book also examines the idea of lived political culture, which asserts that politics is part of social relations and is experienced in the negotiations and contestations of social life. It reviews examples from types of civic engagement.