As you note, the term, “participatory culture,” can be seen as
emerging from the cultural studies tradition, but there is also
a strong history of writing about “participatory politics.” Are
these separate conversations? What might these two strands of
research have to say to each other? The participation
conversation is a very broad one, and rightly noted, one that
has ebbed and flowed across the centuries. Rather than the
concept of participation, it is the dominant focus of the
participation that is unique to the time period – political
participation, economic participation, social action. Of course,
even when one topic dominated the push for participation,
thousands of smaller participatory cultures also thrived around
issues such as crafting, gamesmanship, agriculture, and
invention. The communication technologies of this century have
simply divided and amplified the topics allowing many more
participatory cultures to flourish in unison. Some have argued
that all cultures are by definition participatory.