Three deserve note, revolving around work, public life, and power. Conceptions of human beings as producers or co-creators of the world . This tradition stresses the idea of work, productive labor. It draws attention to humans' creative action in shaping their environment. Conceptions of public life .
Public work highlights the importance of a public life to a full human existence.
Ideas of public life draw from classical notions of the Greeks, and from the civic republican tradition of the Italian Renaissance. Ideas of the public world also draw from traditions of the commons that many immigrants brought with them. Conceptions of democratic, relational power . The third broad tradition of democratic theory in public work are theories and strategies through which ordinary people gain power in a world of large institutions, scientific rationality, and the marketplace. American history is rich with such theorizing about power, and concepts of democracy that stress the civic skills, habits, and institutions of civic muscle through which people impact larger arenas of economic life and politics.