This chapter pulls together the theoretical and empirical threads developed so far and uses them to propose that we think about group settings as political microcultures. These are localized social settings that serve—just as political cultures do in general—to constrain and enable citizens' democratic imaginations. A key element of this idea is that the same citizens, placed in different political microcultures, may think, talk, and practice citizenship differently. The chapter describes the kinds of discourse that characterized the five types of civic groups studied.

This chapter pulls together the theoretical and empirical threads developed so far and uses them to propose that we think about group settings as political microcultures. These are localized social settings that serve—just as political cultures do in general—to constrain and enable citizens' democratic imaginations. A key element of this idea is that the same citizens, placed in different political microcultures, may think, talk, and practice citizenship differently. The chapter describes the kinds of discourse that characterized the five types of civic groups studied.