PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: THE END OR THE CRISIS OF THE MODERNITY PROJECT?
Public participation in the last decade and a half has acquired new characteristics. The purpose of the article is to ﬁ nd out whether they indicate a new stage in the development of public participation as a qualitatively new project outside the modern era, or a manifestation of crisis of the unﬁ nished “participation project” of the modern era. Using the ideas of Jürgen Habermas, the author points out and characterizes the main features of the social project. The dynamics of changes in its programs, discourses and social practices is shown on the basis of the 70-90-ies period analysis which is considered to be the last Western project of public participation in the era of modernity. The article emphasizes its organic connection with the tradition of modernism. It is argued that the trends in the development of public participation in the late 90’s - 00’s indicate the crisis of the program as well as of the entire project of participation in the era of modernity. The article shows the attempts of Western researchers to think public participation over on the basis of the P. Bourdieu theory of social space. The author considers these attempts as the search for new approaches to design the program corresponding to new social practices. However, the article points out that the search of a new program is based almost on the same issues of power and control, government intervention, which were relevant to the project in the era of modernity.