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.
Citations
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01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: In this article, Groundwater-Smith is celebrated as a self-reflective practitioner who has not only been an advocate for practitioner inquiry but has also been an exemplary model of the self reflective practitioner.
Abstract: This chapter celebrates Susan Groundwater-Smith as a self-reflective practitioner who has not merely been an advocate for practitioner inquiry but has also been an exemplary model of the self-reflective practitioner. It uses the six elements (elaborated in the chapter) of a new definition of critical participatory action research as a framework for exploring Susan’s contributions to reflective practice in education and teacher education. It argues that profound commitments evidenced in her life and work over 30 years demonstrate that she is at least an accidental, if not a deliberate, practitioner of this form of action research. The six elements concern (1) practice, praxis and effective-historical consciousness, (2) critical and self-critical reflection, (3) communicative space, (4) exploratory action, (5) having a practical aim, and (6) having an emancipatory aim. The chapter concludes that, as a teacher, as a teacher educator, as an advocate for the disadvantaged, as a researcher, and as an advocate for education, she exemplifies the virtues of the self-reflective practitioner.
45 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...…its achievement), the process of communicative action involves people together seeking understanding and consensus about what to do by speaking freely and opening themselves up to creative, responsive, democratic approaches to problems (Habermas 1987b, 1996, 2003c; Kemmis and McTaggart 2005)....
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...They say (referring specifically to Habermas 1996): More than any other theorist Jürgen Habermas is responsible for reviving the idea of deliberation in our time, and giving it a more thoroughly democratic foundation....
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...In light of Habermas’ (1987a, 1996, 2003c) critique of the social ‘macro-subject’ (a social totality understood as a self-regulating whole) and of praxis philosophy (that envisaged a self-steering state acting on behalf of the social totality), however, critical participatory action research can no…...
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Dissertation•
25 Mar 2019
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the institutionalized power imbalance of the Swedish asylum system and use critical discourse analysis (CDA) to identify power relations that are particularly unbalanced.
Abstract: This study focuses on asylum cases decided at Sweden’s migration courts. More precisely, it analyses how the highest legal instance, the Migration Court of Appeal (hereafter MCA), legitimizes decisions that concern asylum seekers. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), the study makes power relations visible. Investigating central discursive claims that are expressed in the precedents of Swedish asylum law, certain power relations are identified as particularly unbalanced. Based on the identification of what I subsequently call the institutionalized power imbalance of the asylum system, the study’s findings compel me to challenge this imbalance. After conducting ten interviews with judges at Sweden’s four (second-instance) Migration Courts as well as at the (third-instance) MCA, I reviewed 200 precedents (published 2006-2016) that concern people who applied for a residence permit in Sweden. Of these 200, 75 precedents of relevance for Swedish asylum law appear in the study. Drawing on Robert Stake’s understanding of a collective case study, the interviews are used to sample six precedents for in-depth analysis. Through a CDA of these last-instance decisions it is demonstrated how precedents of Swedish asylum law discursively represent 1) families with children, 2) class, race, ethnicity and religion, gender and sexuality, and 3) the policy of ‘regulated immigration’. Building on Norman Fairclough’s conceptualization of discursive legitimation strategies, and with the help of Robert Alexy’s and Jurgen Habermas’ approaches to legal discourse, it is argued that precedents of Swedish asylum law are not only legitimized based on I) the authority of law, but also by reference to II) the rationalization of empirical reasoning, III) the utility of institutionalized actions that can use law as means for political ends, IV) those moral evaluations that permeate legal discourse, and V) the storytelling that appears when legal texts are read as narratives. This argumentation highlights uncertainty, which affects the social reality of asylum processes and which appears to be represented when precedents of Swedish asylum law are legitimized by reference to rationalization, moral evaluation, and/or as narratives. Providing the respective decisions with some meaning, rather than merely making sure that they are legally correct, the analysed precedents are, thus, legitimized not only by reference to the authority of law. Referring to Seyla Benhabib and her usage of Robert Cover’s distinction between ‘law as power’ and ‘law as meaning’, a CDA of precedents of Swedish asylum law can, in this sense, illustrate how judges pay notice to the complexity of refugee migration in the world of today. (Less)
45 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy....
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...In 1992, almost 20 years after the publication of Legitimationsprobleme im Spätkapitalismus, Habermas published the first edition of Between Facts and Norms....
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...The section is unfortunately not in included in the English version of the book, Between Facts and Norms (Habermas, 1996)....
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TL;DR: In this editorial of the special issue on philosophy and the future of IS, arguments to support them are developed, the current state of philosophy in IS is reviewed, and a research agenda is put forward.
Abstract: All research is philosophy in action. A lack of attention to and understanding of philosophy can render research and its outcomes misleading or vacuous. Understanding philosophical questions, on th...
45 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate two competing models of multicultural integration in stratified societies: the multiple publics model of Nancy Fraser and the fragmented public sphere model of Jeffrey Alexander.
Abstract: This paper intends to evaluate two competing models of multicultural integration in stratified societies: the “multiple publics” model of Nancy Fraser and the “fragmented public sphere” model of Jeffrey Alexander. Fraser and Alexander disagree on whether or not claims to a general “common good” or “common humanity” are democratically legitimate in light of systemic inequality. Fraser rejects the idea that cultural integration can be democratic in conditions of social inequality, while Alexander accepts it and tries to explain how it may be realized. In order to address this debate, I analyze the cultural foundations of the female-led, maternally themed social movements of nineteenth-century America. The language of these movements supports Alexander's position over Fraser's, though it also suggests that Alexander is mistaken in the specifics of his cultural theory of a general and democratic “common good.” While Alexander's model of integration is structured uniquely by what he and Philip Smith have calle...
45 citations
Book•
05 Sep 2016
TL;DR: The theory of "egalitarian rights recognition" as discussed by the authors is based on a combination of aspects of the work of Thomas Hill Green and Hannah Arendt, and it is argued that human rights must be grounded in social recognition, rather than in the innate qualities of the human.
Abstract: This thesis sets out the theory of ‘egalitarian rights recognition’, which is based on a novel combination of aspects of the work of Thomas Hill Green and Hannah Arendt. In doing so, it makes three key arguments. First, human rights must be grounded in social recognition, rather than in the innate qualities of the human. Second, rights recognition requires a serious commitment to equality - conversely egalitarian rights recognition provides a critical lens through which the problems of rights recognised in situations of inequality can be more clearly seen. Third, human rights, if grounded by egalitarian social recognition, are important for human freedom and flourishing. The thesis concludes by applying the theory of egalitarian rights recognition to the international level, arguing that rights recognition can provide a more plausible basis for cosmopolitanism than natural rights, and thus for human rights, rather than rights within a certain state.
45 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