What is it about?
The UK Parliament’s activity in public engagement has recently expanded considerably. Faced with declining levels of trust, it has invested considerable time and resources to new activities focusing specifically on engagement: educational resources and cultural events among many others. This embodies a new role for parliament of increasing importance particularly in the context of the 21st-century parliament. But it is an area that still requires further study, as we know little about the role performed by parliamentary public engagement. This article explores the institution’s aims in developing public engagement and reflects on the extent to which this embodies elements of symbolic representation.
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Why is it important?
Our research shows that public engagement planning in the UK Parliament aims to develop among the public a sense of connectivity that relies on more collective and symbolic forms of representation, which seek to present the institution detached from its actors and politics. This article also maps how the activity of public engagement has been developed by this Parliament. the article also shows that traditional conceptualisations of parliamentary representation need expanding to understand today's representation.
Perspectives
A key element like in this article is the explanation of how the parliament's role in society has developed from the Gentlemen's Club type of parliament in the 19 century, to a Representative in the 20th and finally to the Mediator Parliament in the 21th century. I also like the way it discusses representation, to show that it needs to be conceptualised beyond elections and beyond the representation of specific interests. finally the article also outlines well how the activity of public engagement has developed within the UK Parliament.
Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira
University of Leeds
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Why symbolic representation frames parliamentary public engagement, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, March 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1369148115615029.
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