Find in Library

This article addresses the ability of anyone to become involved as simple citizens and as a non-expert in a “participatory democracy” assembly, in the presence of city officials, technical experts and other fellow citizens. Using a method of analytical ethnography –combining communicational pragmatics and ethnographic inquiry– it aims at making better understand the specificity of non-expert competence. Applying this method to an everyday situation, the article shows the limits of strictly discursive approaches of decision-making and reveals infradiscursive grammatical spaces –focused gathering, interlocutory game, acquaintance and joint venture– which participate in regulating the participants’ public commitments. The article finally discusses the critical impact of non-discursive competences of political interaction brought to light by ethnopragmatics.