Journal Article•
Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy
About: This article is published in Review of Metaphysics.The article was published on 1997-02-01 and is currently open access. It has received 2568 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Democracy.
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TL;DR: Benhabib as mentioned in this paper argues that a school that engages in deliberative communication, with its stress on mutual communication between different moral perspectives, gives universalism a procedurally oriented meaning, serving as an arena for encounters that represents a weak public sphere.
Abstract: Is it possible to look at schools as spaces for encounters? Could schools contribute to a deliberative mode of communication in a manner better suited to our own time and to areas where different cultures meet? Inspired primarily by classical (Dewey) and modern (Habermas) pragmatists,I turn to Seyla Benhabib,posing the question whether she supports the proposition that schools can be sites for deliberative communication. I argue that a school that engages in deliberative communication, with its stress on mutual communication between different moral perspectives, gives universalism a procedurally oriented meaning, serving as an arena for encounters that represents a weak public sphere.An interactive universalism of this kind attaches importance to developing an ability and willingness to reason on the basis of the views of others and to change perspectives. In that respect, the institutional arrangements of schools are potential parts of the political dimension of cosmopolitanism,as well as its moral dimension,in terms of the obligations and responsibilities we develop through our institutions and in our actions as human beings towards one another.
49 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...…Habermas states more precisely: ‘Deliberative politics acquires its legitimating force from the discursive structure of an opinion- and will-formation that can fulfil its socially integrative function only because citizens expect its result to have a reasonable quality’ (Habermas, 1996, p. 304)....
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...They also offer a similar view of a deeper, deliberative democracy, believing that ‘the essential need ... is the improvement of the methods and conditions of debate, discussion and persuasion’ (Habermas, 1996, p. 304, with reference to Dewey, 1927)....
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...…views are confronted with one another and arguments for these different views are given time and space and are articulated and presented (cf. Habermas, 1987, 1990, 1996; Gutmann & Thompson, 1996); there is tolerance and respect for the concrete other and participants learn to listen to the…...
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...…politics depends not on a collectively acting citizenry but on the institutionalization of the corresponding procedures and conditions of communication, as well as on the interplay of institutionalized deliberative processes with informally developed public opinions’ (Habermas, 1996, p. 298)....
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...Habermas emphasizes how liberal and communitarian traditions have failed ‘to grasp the intersubjective meaning of a system of rights that citizens mutually accord one another’ (Habermas, 1996, p. 271)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a study of standardization in four communications networks: AT&T's monopoly telephone network, the Internet, digital cellular telephone networks, and the World Wide Web is presented.
Abstract: My dissertation is a study of standardization in four communications networks: AT&T’s monopoly telephone network, the Internet, digital cellular telephone networks, and the World Wide Web. A history of these networks that highlights standardization shows how engineers in industry committees replaced managers in monopoly hierarchies as the stewards of standards for communication networks. By the end of the twentieth century, the new networks—and the new institutions devised to sustain the standardization process—formed the technological and ideological infrastructure of the Third Industrial Revolution.
49 citations
TL;DR: The Good Society as discussed by the authors contains a "praxis" section on "theory" with a portion of which was published in Vol. 14, No. 3 (2005) of The Good Society, which is dedicated to the memory of Iris Marion Young (1949-2006).
Abstract: This section on 'theory' is from a larger bibliography contain ing a 'praxis' section, a portion of which was published in Vol. 14, No. 3 (2005) of The Good Society. Sections 1 and 2 assume some familiarity with primary texts and therefore include titles that fall under the rubric of 'secondary literature.' However, insofar as the articulation of the philosophy of Liberalism is an ongoing affair, contemporary titles from the likes of Galston, Gaus, and Rawls, for example, can hardly be deemed 'secondary,' so the appellation is in regard to the first wave or historically classical works of Liberalism (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, etc.) that are not included here. I would like to dedicate this to the memory of Iris Marion Young (1949-2006), former Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. In the words of Cass Sunstein, 'There is no question in my mind that she is one of the most important political philosophers of the past quarter-century.'
49 citations
TL;DR: A sociological approach to what I call the "civil sphere" of society, defined by as mentioned in this paper, is a new object domain for sociology, one centering on the expansion and contraction of democratic solidarity.
Abstract: Over the last decade, I have been trying to help fashion a new kind of critical social theory, one that can contribute to the "new theoretical reflection and interpretation of social contestation and political action" (Cohen 1982:xii) that such post-Marxist thinkers as Cohen and Seyla Benhabib (1986) called for two decades ago but that has seemed less and less ascertainable with the passing of time. Outlining a sociological approach to what I call the "civil sphere" of society, I have defined what I would like to think is a new object domain for sociology, one centering on the expansion and contraction of democratic solidarity. Through a series of conceptual elaborations and empirical investigations, I have begun to sketch out core components of this "civil sphere." These cultural and institutional components are fundamentally ambiguous, and they form contradictory relations with the "noncivil" domains that surround the civil sphere. Language: en
48 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...…and thus implicitly in norms, ties demands for immediate satisfaction to utopian, critical exploration: “The claim to happiness can be made good only if the sources of that semantic potential we need for interpretating the world in the light of our needs are not exhausted”~Habermas 1983:156!....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply aspects of Jurgen Habermas, Manuel Castells and Lawrence Lessig's theories to demonstrate how digital communication and new media platforms enhance cultural participation as well as how cultural policy affects the cultural behaviour of users who produce and are consumers in a digital convergence culture.
Abstract: This article applies aspects of Jurgen Habermas, Manuel Castells and Lawrence Lessig’s theories to demonstrate how digital communication and new media platforms enhance cultural participation as well as how cultural policy affects the cultural behaviour of users who produce and are consumers in a digital convergence culture. The digital platforms and new media used in the analysis include an open source animated short film, Elephants Dream, the social networking sites YouTube and MySpace, and the BBC’s Creative Archive. The aim of this article is to study how cultural policy makers can learn from these examples and how they can make use of the participatory, self‐publishing characteristics of Web 2.0 in order to create accessible digital cultural public spheres.
48 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing--and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves.
Abstract: With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today's emerging networked information environment. In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing--and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained--or lost--by the decisions we make today.
4,002 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a framework for understanding the range of institutional possibilities for public participation, including who participates, how participants communicate with one another and make decisions together, and how discussions are linked with policy or public action.
Abstract: The multifaceted challenges of contemporary governance demand a complex account of the ways in which those who are subject to laws and policies should participate in making them. This article develops a framework for understanding the range of institutional possibilities for public participation. Mechanisms of participation vary along three important dimensions: who participates, how participants communicate with one another and make decisions together, and how discussions are linked with policy or public action. These three dimensions constitute a space in which any particular mechanism of participation can be located. Different regions of this institutional design space are more and less suited to addressing important problems of democratic governance such as legitimacy, justice, and effective administration.
1,526 citations
01 Dec 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the current debate about the nature of democracy and discuss the main theses of the approach called "deliberative democracy" in its two main versions, the one put forward by John Rawls, and the other one put forth by Jurgen Habermas.
Abstract: This article examines the current debate about the nature of democracy and discusses the main theses of the approach called 'deliberative democracy' in its two main versions, the one put forward by John Rawls, and the other one put forwardby Jurgen Habermas. While agreeing with them as regards to the need to develop a more of democracy than the one offered by the 'aggregative' model, I submit that they do not provide an adequate understanding of the main task of democracy. No doubt, by stating that democracy cannot be reduced to a question of procedures to mediate among conflicting interests, deliberative democrats defend a conception of democracy that presents a richer conception of politics. But, albeit in a different way thanthe view they criticize, their vision is also a rationalist one which leaves aside the crucial role played by 'passions' and collective forms of identifications in the field of politics. Moreover, in their attempt to reconcile the liberal tradition with the democratic one, deliberative democrats tend to erase the tension that exist between liberalism and democracy and they are therefore unable to come to terms with the conflictual nature of democratic politics. The main thesis that I put forward in this article is that democratic theory needs to acknowledge the ineradicability of antagonism and the impossibility of achieving a fully inclusive rational consensus. I argue that a model of democracy in terms of 'agonistic pluralism' can help us to better envisage the main challenge facing democratic politics today: how to create democratic forms of identifications that will contribute to mobilize passions towards democratic designs.;
1,338 citations
TL;DR: Public diplomacy, as the diplomacy of the public, not of the government, intervenes in this global public sphere, laying the ground for traditional forms of diplomacy to act beyond the strict negotiation of power relationships by building on shared... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The public sphere is the space of communication of ideas and projects that emerge from society and are addressed to the decision makers in the institutions of society. The global civil society is the organized expression of the values and interests of society. The relationships between government and civil society and their interaction via the public sphere define the polity of society. The process of globalization has shifted the debate from the national domain to the global debate, prompting the emergence of a global civil society and of ad hoc forms of global governance. Accordingly, the public sphere as the space of debate on public affairs has also shifted from the national to the global and is increasingly constructed around global communication networks. Public diplomacy, as the diplomacy of the public, not of the government, intervenes in this global public sphere, laying the ground for traditional forms of diplomacy to act beyond the strict negotiation of power relationships by building on shared...
936 citations
Book•
05 Oct 2012
TL;DR: Tweets and the Streets as mentioned in this paper examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the emergence of new forms of protest, arguing that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a "cyberspace" detached from physical reality.
Abstract: Tweets and the Streets analyses the culture of the new protest movements of the 21st century. From the Arab Spring to the "indignados" protests in Spain and the Occupy movement, Paolo Gerbaudo examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the emergence of new forms of protest. Gerbaudo argues that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a "cyberspace" detached from physical reality. Instead, social media is used as part of a project of re-appropriation of public space, which involves the assembling of different groups around "occupied" places such as Cairo's Tahrir Square or New York's Zuccotti Park. An exciting and invigorating journey through the new politics of dissent, Tweets and the Streets points both to the creative possibilities and to the risks of political evanescence which new media brings to the contemporary protest experience.
911 citations