Civil Society and the Public Sphere

"Obama and the ‘Arab Spring’: desire, hope and the manufacture of disappointment. Implications for a transformative pedagogy"

by John Schostak

paper just published with co-author Lorna Roberts. It develops themes and arguments in earlier conference versions available on academia.edu: see: ‘Democracy matters in race matters’: Obama, desire, hope and the manufacture of disappointment.

For a period, in the run up to the election (2007–2008) and the months after the election, the name ‘Obama’ signified... more For a period, in the run up to the election (2007–2008) and the months after the election, the name ‘Obama’ signified hope for millions, not just in America but across the world. As the hope turned to disappointment, the financial crisis deepened and the Arab Spring renewed a call for a ‘humanity’ that could transcend the differences of nations and faiths. What can be learnt from such events about the pedagogies of hope, disappointment and public action? Are there lessons for a transformative pedagogy, an education that could underpin and continuously create the conditions for a politics of freedom and social justice? A range of print, broadcast and digital/Internet news media is analysed to explore the political/rhetorical/pedagogical strategies already set into play that ‘manufacture disappointment’ in order to undermine and negate the transformative, transgressive symbolic significance of ‘Obama’ and thus manage the theme of change to reassert the same.

Economic Societies in the Eighteenth Century: Remarks on the Swedish Case

by Jani Marjanen

Successful Icons of Failed Time. Rethinking Post-communist Nostalgia

by Dominik Bartmanski

published in Acta Sociologica 2011

Under what cultural conditions can the relics of symbolically polluted time re-emerge as its purified signifiers and... more Under what cultural conditions can the relics of symbolically polluted time re-emerge as its purified signifiers and culturally successful icons within new circumstances? What does it mean when people articulate ‘nostalgic’ commitments to social reality they have themselves recently jettisoned? Drawing on the ideas of the iconic turn and American cultural sociology, the article offers a new framework for understanding post-communist nostalgia. Specifically, it provides a comparative reinterpretation of the phenomenon of so-called Ostalgie as manifest in the streetscapes of Berlin and its counterpart in Warsaw. One of the key arguments holds that ‘nostalgic’ icons are successful because they play the cultural role of mnemonic bridges to rather than tokens of longing for the failed communist past. In this capacity they forge a communal sense of continuity in the liquid times of systemic transformation. As such, the article contributes to broader debates about meanings of material objects and urban space in relation to collective memory destabilized by liminal temporality.

[review] Problemen met de civiele maatschappij

by Matthijs van den Bos

Van den Bos, M. 1996. "Problemen met de civiele maatschappij [Civil society problematics]." Review of Norton, Augustus Richard, ed. 1995/1996. Civil Society in the Middle East (Vols. 1 and 2). Soera. Tijdschrift over het Midden-Oosten 4 (2): 38-40.

Review - David N. Gellner (ed.), Varieties of Activist Experience: Civil Society in South Asia (New Delhi, 2010) and Ethnic Activism and Civil Society in South Asia (New Delhi, 2009)

by Uday Chandra

Forthcoming in Social Movement Studies 12 (1), 2013

Nationalism in times of globalization: A study in the dynamics of 'globalism'

by Miguelángel Verde Garrido

Published in: LÓGOI: Revista de Filosofía. (January-June 2008). (n. 13). (pp. 101-120). Caracas: Escuela de Filosofía/Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.
ISSN 1316-693X

Prime Minister Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni-jinja; the deployment of Japanese Self-Defense Forces to Iraq; Prime... more Prime Minister Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni-jinja; the deployment of Japanese Self-Defense Forces to Iraq; Prime Minister Abe's claim that the coercion of "comfort women” remains to be proven …
In recent years, China, Korea and other countries have expressed outrage towards controversial Japanese government decisions and public statements. Added to proposals of constitutional revision, bills regarding Self-Defense Forces and the content of education, the specter of Japan's ultranationalist past seems to hinder its integration and ability to overcome differences within the Asian-Pacific region. However, carefully considered, these matters may not be as interrelated as they appear. Some actions respond to domestic nationalistic discourse, but others are a reaction to the changes in global geopolitics and attempts at international cooperation. In times of globalization, all countries try to accommodate to “globalism” - the often-contradictory ideology that underlies globalization - in order to secure and maintain their own national identity. This paper, using Japan as a case study, offers an explanation regarding how “globalism” can lead to nationalism. It also questions whether the greatest threat to democracy is not civil society’s tendency to inaction; and, if action is sufficient to thwart radicalization of nationalism.

“(De)construyendo la esfera pública. Juventud y la otra cultura política

by J. Igor Israel González Aguirre

Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Niñez y Juventud, Vol. 10, núm. 1, CINDE, Colombia, 2012

Ser joven se constituye hoy en un ámbito de indecibilidad. Lo anterior coloca la construcción de los proyectos... more Ser joven se constituye hoy en un ámbito de indecibilidad. Lo anterior coloca la construcción de los proyectos identitarios directamente en el centro del campo político. El estudio de ello requiere considerar una serie de interrogantes, que son las que dan cuerpo a esta intervención: ¿cómo se tematiza la relación entre la juventud y la esfera pública en la Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara, Jalisco, México? ¿Cuáles son las imágenes culturales que dotan de visibilidad a los jóvenes y a las jóvenes en dicha zona y cómo éstas funcionan cual mecanismos de control por parte del Estado? ¿Qué tácticas despliegan los sujetos jóvenes tapatíos frente a ello?

Tracing a Thread of Orientalism through Colonialism & Beyond: Presentations of Vietnamese Nationalism by and for Americans

by Nolan Bensen

This paper traces the outlandish and essentializing claims of Neil Jamieson in Understanding Vietnam through his... more This paper traces the outlandish and essentializing claims of Neil Jamieson in Understanding Vietnam through his sources to the orientalist, adventurer, and son of a French colonial administrator in Vietnam, Paul Mus. It attempts to show that Mus' work was orientalist and that some major works citing him have been encouraged by his work to take that tack.

Ignore the last two pages. They were a minor assignment we had to turn in at the same time.

Building the normative dimension (s) of a global polity

by james brassett

Contingent borders, ambiguous ethics: Migrants in (international) political theory

by james brassett

The article engages a critical analysis of liberal theory in the context of transnational migration. Normative... more The article engages a critical analysis of liberal theory in the context of transnational migration. Normative arguments provided by liberal-cosmopolitan and liberal-communitarian authors are contrasted. While sympathetic to such approaches, we argue that traditional liberal theory has attempted to downplay the contingency and resultant ambiguity of many of its moral precepts. Historically contingent borders underpin neat universal categories like ‘‘citizen’’ and ‘‘refugee,’’ which fail to reflect the diverse and contested experiences of migration. But such ambiguities need not undermine liberal approaches. Indeed, a proper engagement with the problematic and uncertain realities of migration can provide a spur to a more thoroughgoing ethical praxis. We draw on the philosophical pragmatism of Richard Rorty to outline an approach to migration that remains open to the contingent construction of terms like ‘‘migrant,’’ ‘‘refugee,’’ and ‘‘asylum-seeker.’’ By extending Rorty’s concept of sentimental education, we provide an imaginative and politically
challenging set of agendas for the ethics of migration.

"Where are the Missing Masses? The Quasi-publics and Non-publics of Technoscience"

by shiju sam varughese

Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, Vol. 50, No. 2, 2012 (Special Issue: Young Scholars Take a Forward Look), DOI 10.1007/s11024-012-9197-3

The paper offers a political-philosophical analysis of the state and publics in the age of technoscience to propose... more The paper offers a political-philosophical analysis of the state and publics in the age of technoscience to propose three distinct categories of publics: scientific-citizen publics constituted by civil society, quasi-publics that initiate another kind of engagement through the activation of ‘political society,’ and non-publics cast outside these spheres of engagement, based on the empirical contexts of public engagement with technoscience in non-western contexts like India.

Making Global Publics? Communication and Knowledge Production in the World Social Forum Process

by Hilde C. Stephansen

PhD Thesis, 2011

This thesis provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the character and significance of media and communication in... more This thesis provides an in-depth empirical analysis of the character and significance of media and communication in the World Social Forum (WSF), focusing on their relationship to processes of knowledge production. Using the concept of publics as a theoretical tool, it explores how, through mediated communication, forum organisers and communication activists seek to extend the WSF in time and space and thereby make it public. Engaging critically with the idea of the WSF as a global process, the thesis considers how mediated communication might contribute to making the WSF global, not so much in absolute terms as by creating a sense of globality, and how the idea of the global relates to other scales. It develops an understanding of the WSF as an epistemic project that seeks both to affirm the existence and validity of multiple knowledges and to facilitate convergence between them, and considers how different communication practices might further this project.

Based on ethnographic research carried out in connection with the WSF 2009 in Belém, complemented by fieldwork at other social forums, the thesis is structured as a series of case studies of different communication practices, ranging from efforts to engage with conventional mass media to various initiatives that seek to strengthen movement-based communication infrastructures and enable WSF participants to communicate on their own terms. These demonstrate that there are many different approaches to making the WSF 'public' and 'global', which beyond facilitating the circulation of media content also involve mobilising new actors to participate in media production and generating a sense of identification with a global WSF process. They also show that mediated communication can contribute to knowledge production not only by facilitating information sharing, but also through the more subtle processes of empowerment, network-building, and translation across difference it can stimulate when embedded in movement dynamics.

The spaces of public dissension: Reconsidering the public sphere

by Kendall Phillips

Symbols of Power in Rituals of Violence: The Personality Cult and Iconoclasm on the Soviet Empire’s Periphery (East Germany, 1945–61)

by Alexey Tikhomirov

published in: Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 13, Number 1, Winter 2012, pp. 47-88.

Türkiye'nin Dış Politikası ve Düşünce Kuruluşları

by Serhat Guvenc

Beyond the Oikos – Pólis Divide? Historical Transformations of the Private–Public Relationship, and Current Work Life Developments

by Olav Eikeland

pp. 23-60 in Berg, Anne Marie and Eikeland, Olav (eds.) (2008): Action Research and Organization Theory, Frankfurt a.M., Peter Lang Publishers

In "Beyond the Oikos-Pólis Divide - Historical Transformations of the Private-Public Relationship, and Current... more In "Beyond the Oikos-Pólis Divide - Historical Transformations of the Private-Public Relationship, and Current Work Life Developments", Olav Eikeland argues that it is important to rethink conventional ways of distinguishing between what is private and what is public, what is political and what is economic. The distinction between "private" / oikos ("economy") and "public" / pólis ("politics") is important for understanding changes in current organisational conduct and thinking. He shows how the concepts of "public" versus "private" have changed historically. The lineage for these distinctions stretches through most of European history back to antiquity and the beginning of political thinking among Greek philosophers. Eikeland discusses how a reconstruction of these concepts today may contribute to an understanding of the relationships not only between moderne public authorities and private firms, but even more the changing relationships inside current work life organisations. The contention is that distinctions like these are not merely historical and arbitrary and conventional, but that in a certain sense they are necessary for competence development, collective learning and (action) research.

CULTURAL SOCIOLOGY AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN A WORLD OF FLOWS: RECAPTURING AMBIGUITY, HYBRIDITY, AND THE POLITICAL

by gianpaolo baiocchi

Please cite as: Baiocchi, Gianpaolo. 2012. CULTURAL SOCIOLOGY AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN A WORLD OF FLOWS: RECAPTURING AMBIGUITY, HYBRIDITY, AND THE POLITICAL. In Alexander, Jacobs, and Smith Eds, The Handbook of Cultural Sociology (Oxford University Press)

Annist, A. 2009. Outsourcing Culture: Establishing Heritage Hegemony by Funding Cultural Life in South Eastern Estonia

by Aet Annist

Published in Lietuvos etnologija: socialinės antropologijos ir etnologijos studijos. 2009, 9(18), 117–138.

The following article compares the Soviet and post-Soviet processes of hegemony creation. Based on long-term... more The following article compares the Soviet and post-Soviet processes of hegemony creation. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, I describe how in Estonia, where highly formalised cultural sphere was a norm already in the 19th century, Soviet cultural hegemony was never properly established. The Soviet system of blanket-funding unintentionally enabled the perseverance of nationalist cultural counter-hegemony. In contrast, the current system of project based funding is more effective in creating cultural hegemony. I provide ethnographic examples of how such new practices of governmentality are outsourcing the establishment of emblematic
hegemony of a small cultural group, Setos.

Compilation of European Public Sphere in view of relations with Turkey

by Fehmi Yildiz

References:

• Bee et al.(2008)European Plitical Science,Vol.7,Issue3,p257-263
• Bredt(2006),European Law Journal,Vol.12,Issue 1,p61-77
• Splichal(2006),Media,Culture & Society,Vol.28,Issue 5,p695-714
• Brüggemann(2005),Javnost-The Public,Vol.12,Issue 2,p57-73
• Eriksen(2005),European Journal of Social Theory,Vol.8,Issue 3,p341-363
• Habermas et al.(1974),New German Critique,No 3,p 49-55
• Sivil Toplum Portalı (2003)

The public sphere we mean first of all a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be... more The public sphere we mean first of all a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed.Access is guranteed to all citizens.A portion of the public sphere come into being in every conversation in which private individuals assemble to form a public body.They then behave neither like business or Professional people transacting private affairs,nor like members of a constitutional order subject to the legal constraints of a state bureaucracy.Citizens behave as a public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion-that is,with guarantee of freedom of assembly and association and the freedom to Express and publish their opinions-about matters of generel interest.” Habermas et al. 1964
The public sphere,as one of the important subject of Turkey's accession to European Union,demonstrates how integration important.There is an evalution of Turkey's public sphere and how it shapes itself while Europenisation concept becoming more clear.

Cosmopolitanism vs Terrorism? Discourses of Ethical Possibility Before and After 7/7

by james brassett

The article provides a critical analysis of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and terrorism, via the question... more The article provides a critical analysis of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and terrorism, via the question of response. Using 9/11 and 7/7 as key moments in the evolution of this relationship, the article asks: how does cosmopolitanism respond to terrorism? What limits does this response contain? How might we go beyond such limits? It is argued that cosmopolitan responses to terrorism provide an important, but limited (and sometimes limiting), alternative to mainstream discourses on terror. After 9/11 the possibility for cosmopolitan thinking ‘beyond’ the mainstream view was articulated by a range of authors, including Archibugi, Habermas, Held and Linklater. A brief survey suggests that defending international law, constructing international institutions and alleviating global poverty were seen as good responses, in the context of divisive mainstream politics. However, by engaging a case study of the Make Poverty History campaign, the article argues that when cosmopolitan ideas were cemented in practice, the distinctiveness of a cosmopolitan response faded. This point was brought into sharp relief by a number of moralising responses to 7/7. Straightforward dichotomies between ‘barbaric terrorists’ and ‘civilised cosmopolitans’ served to construct cosmopolitanism as a coherent, and united, global community. Available tactics, for this ‘community’, were reduced to more-of-the same – more aid, more global democracy – and assertions of a moral equivalence between Bush and ‘Terror’, such that ‘you are either with cosmopolitans, or, you are with the War on Terror’. In light of
these ethical closures, and drawing from the arguments of Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler, the article identifies some cursory ways in which cosmopolitans might think beyond such limits, to articulate an imaginative and engaged approach to global ethics.