Public Sphere

Requirements of a European Public Sphere. Civil Society, Self, and the Institutionalization of Citizenship.“

by Carlos Closa

Supranational citizenship and democracy: normative and empirical dimensions

by Carlos Closa

in La Torre, Massimo (ed.) (1998) European citizenship; an institutional challenge(Dordrecht: Kluwer Law) pages 415-433

Les élections européennes de 2009: entre national et européen. Une analyse des campagnes électorales dans 22 Etats membres

by Nathalie Brack

co-authored with Y-S. Rittelmeyer et C. Stanculescu, published as working papers "Les cahiers du Cevipol", 2009

Notre étude a pour objectif d’analyser, au travers des médias, les campagnes précédant le scrutin européen de 2009... more Notre étude a pour objectif d’analyser, au travers des médias, les campagnes précédant le scrutin européen de 2009 dans 22 Etats membres au prisme de la perspective d’élections de second ordre et dans le prolongement de la littérature sur l’européanisation des sphères publiques nationales. Ainsi, à travers une approche qualitative et comparative, nous questionnons le rapport entre « le national » et « l’européen » dans les différentes campagnes à la lumière de trois indicateurs : les thèmes, les acteurs et l’ouverture aux autres
Etats-membres. Ce Cahier du CEVIPOL est le résultat d’un projet qui a consisté à suivre, dans une majorité des Etats de l’Union européenne, les campagnes électorales qui ont précédé le septième scrutin pour le Parlement européen. Ce working paper se compose, en premier lieu, d’une « analyse générale » établie d’après l’observation des différentes campagnes. Elle est suivie de « fiches pays », consacrées spécifiquement à la campagne dans chacun des 22 pays étudiés.

Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2008). On the public sphere, deliberation, journalism and dignity: An interview with Seyla Benhabib. Journalism Studies, 9(6), 962-970.

by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

"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.

African Citizen Journalists' Ethics and the Emerging Networked Public Sphere

by Simon Columbus

Mutsvairo, B., Columbus, S., & Leijendekker, I. (2012, April 20). African Citizen Journalists' Ethics and the Emerging Networked Public Sphere. Presented at the International Symposium on Online Journalism, University of Texas, Austin.

Citizen journalism is emerging as a powerful phenomenon across Africa. The rise of digitally-networked technologies... more Citizen journalism is emerging as a powerful phenomenon across Africa. The rise of digitally-networked technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones is reshaping reporting across the continent. This change is technological – with social media platforms enabling new forms of publishing, receiving, and discussing stories – as well as cultural – with idiosyncratic conventions emerging on these platforms. This study surveys the ethical beliefs of citizen journalists in several sub-Saharan African countries. We find that they are driven by a sense of social responsibility and a wish to inform their readers and the general public. Citizen journalists show a clear anti- authoritarian strain and an antipathy towards government regulation, yet most see themselves as subject to the same ethics that guide traditional journalism. We then investigate the implications of these ethics for the emerging networked public sphere. The emergence of a digitally-networked public sphere has been hailed as a revival of bottom-up democracy in the West, but its consequences for African countries are rather ambiguous. We therefore set out to disentangle the possible relationship between citizen journalism and the emerging networked public sphere.

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.

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.

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.

"Europäische Schuldenkrise" als Demokratiekrise: Zur diskursiven Interaktion zwischen Politik und Finanzmarkt

by Georg Simmerl

To be published in: Berliner Debatte INITIAL, 2012 (3).

German:

Dieses Papier setzt Habermas' Demokratietheorie und post-strukturalistische Finanzmarktsoziologie... more German:

Dieses Papier setzt Habermas' Demokratietheorie und post-strukturalistische Finanzmarktsoziologie in Bezug zueinander, um die zentrale demokratietheoretische Problematik in der "europäischen Schuldenkrise" aufzuzeigen. Im Finanzmarkt-Kapitalismus haben sich die Finanzmärkte selbst zu einer Öffentlichkeit entwickelt, an die sich Exekutivpolitiker argumentativ wenden müssen - Gesellschaft und Ökonomie sind also nicht getrennte Sphären, sondern diskursiv verschränkt. Durch diese Verschränkung wird jedoch der öffentliche Diskurs seiner demokratiesierenden Kraft beraubt.
Dieses Argument wird in drei Schritten expliziert: Im ersten Teil wird zunächst Finanzmarktgeschehen poststrukturalistisch gedeutet, um davon ausgehend die diskursive Verschränkung von Gesellschaft und Finanzmarkt theoretisch zu erfassen und die politische Artikulationslogik im Finanzmarkt-Kapitalismus zu rekonstruieren. Im zweiten Teil wird diese Artikulationslogik mittels einer interpretativen Inhaltsanalyse von vier Reden europäischer Spitzenpolitiker aus dem Jahr 2011 nachgewiesen. Im letzten Teil werden die Erkenntnisse als Evidenz für eine Demokratiekrise diskutiert und gezeigt, dass eine Politisierung sozioökonomischen Wissens - wie sie auch von diesem Paper praktiziert wird – dabei helfen könnte einen Weg aus dieser Demokratie/Finanzkrise zu finden.


English:

This paper puts Habermasian democratic theory and post-structuralist sociology of finance in relation to each other to investigate the central threat of the current “European sovereign debt crisis” to democracy. In financial capitalism, financial markets have become themselves a public which the political executive has to address argumentatively. Society and economy are thus not separated spheres but discursively interconnected. This interconnection, however, strips the democratizing power off public discourse.
The argument is explicated in three parts. The first part interprets financial markets post-structurally to grasp the discursive interconnectedness between society and financial markets in theory and to reconstruct the logic of political articulation in times of financial capitalism. The second part demonstrates this logic of articulation in the European financial crisis by analyzing four speeches of European top politicians during 2011 interpretatively. The third part discusses the findings as evidence for a crisis of democracy and shows that politicization of socio-economic knowledge – as exemplified by this very article – could help finding a way out of this democratic/financial crisis.

Review of: Jürgen Habermas: Democracy and the public sphere Goode, L. (2005). London: Pluto Press.

by Lincoln Dahlberg

The Habermasian public sphere: Taking difference seriously?

by Lincoln Dahlberg

Theory and Society, 2005.

The Habermasian public sphere: A specification of the idealized conditions of democratic communication

by Lincoln Dahlberg

Questioning Chatterjee’s concept of ‘political society’:protopolitics or transitional sphere?

by Aylin Akyar

Mahjong Table: An Ethnographic Study on Proletarian Public Sphere in Chinese Villages.

by Jiachun Hong

Accepted by ICA 2012, Phoenix, USA

O problema da participação política no modelo deliberativo de democracia / The question of the political participation within the deliberativa model of democracy

by Francisco Paulo Jamil Marques

Reference: MARQUES, F. P. J. A. O problema da participação política no modelo deliberativo de democracia. In: Revista de Sociologia e Política (UFPR. Impresso), v.20, n. 41, pp. 21-35. 2012

Title in English: The question of the political participation within the deliberativa model of democracy. Text in... more Title in English: The question of the political participation within the deliberativa model of democracy. Text in Portuguese. Abstract in English: This paper discusses the premises of the deliberative model of democracy as they address the issue of political participation. We attempt to clarify what political participation means for those who use this model, while at the same time looking at some of the major critiques that have been directed toward it. Through a review of an important part of the literature, and without losing sight of earlier systematizations of democratic theory, three fundamental conditions for engendering participation according to this discursive model are pointed to: political institutions should create and offer citizens opportunities to participate in public input; improvement in people's socio-economic condition must be made; attention should be given to particular principles that have consistent regulatory influence on the interactions and arguments in question. This is followed by attention to the criticisms raised and flaws detected by deliberationism's detractors. At the end of the text, a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the model is presented, along with a discussion of the problem of participation in contemporary democracies.

Keywords: Participation; Deliberation; Democracy; Representation.

Politische Kommunikation und Öffentlichkeit in London. Zur Entwicklung einer Großstadt im 17. Jahrhundert aus mediengeschichtlicher Perspektive, in: Die Stadt als Kommunikationsraum. Reden, Schreiben und Schauen in Großstädten des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit, hrsg. v. Irmgard Ch. Becker (Stadt in der Geschichte 36), Ostfildern 2011, S. 55-87.

by Andre Krischer

Propaganda e Opinione Pubblica: Giulio II nella Comunicazione Politica Europea (1503-1513)

by Massimo Rospocher

Annali_dell'Istituto Storico Italo-Germanico_33_2007

To What Extent Does Facebook Function as a Public Sphere?

by Ben Macloughlin

A brief investigation into whether the social network site Facebook can be used to enhance democracy and progress... more A brief investigation into whether the social network site Facebook can be used to enhance democracy and progress Habermas’ ideal public sphere.

«El vulgo zanza»: spazi, pubblici, voci a Venezia durante le Guerre d’Italia

by Massimo Rospocher

Published in "Storica" 48, 2010, pp. 83-120

‘The People are Chattering’: Spaces, Publics, Voices in Venice during the Italian Wars

During the War of... more ‘The People are Chattering’: Spaces, Publics, Voices in Venice during the Italian Wars

During the War of the League of Cambrai (1509-1517), Venice lost (and regained) most of its mainland territory while foreign armies threatened the edge of the lagoon. The crisis spurred vigorous city-wide debate, an “evanescent public sphere” composed of printed and oral communication, unfolding in a variety of public and private urban spaces, and including members of all classes. After surveying the historiography of the Habermasian and post-Habermasian public sphere, this article aims to provide a new definition of public political space by examining this critical historical moment.