Global Governance, Participation and the Public Sphere

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 314-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Nanz ◽  
Jens Steffek
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Rule Making

AbstractWe argue that the democratization of global governance will ultimately depend upon the creation of an appropriate public sphere that connects decision-making processes with transnational constituency. The emergence of such a public sphere would require more transparency in international organizations as well as institutional settings in which policy-makers respond to stakeholders’ concerns. Organized civil society plays a key role by exposing global rule-making to public scrutiny and bringing citizens’ concerns onto the agenda. We illustrate the prospects and difficulties of building a transnational public sphere with the example of the WTO.

Who Is Listening? When Scholars Think They Are Talking to Congress

2014 ◽  
Vol 657 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-273
Author(s):  
Kenneth Prewitt
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

The editors asked for my view on whether, in the current political climate, the recommendations in this volume of The ANNALS are likely to be heeded. The question that precedes this one is whether the volume’s contributors understand why policy-makers make use of science at all. “No” is the obvious answer, though I see this not as a failure particular to their effort but rather as a broader failure of social science. Getting the science right is a necessary but not sufficient step in getting it used. Social scientists have not investigated the use of science in policy in a serious way. They must if science is to have influence in the public sphere. I also comment on the political climate, unhelpfully described by many worried observers as antiscience. It is more informative to say that there is a Congress-led effort to push science policy and federal expenditures toward short-term and narrow national goals. This is harmful to science and consequently to the nation, and scientists should explain why. But they must also respect that science policy and setting priorities for spending public funds are congressional responsibilities.

The Naming of Parts: Doing Public Theology in a Global Era

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Storrar
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Era ◽  
New Public ◽  
National Life ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article draws on the sketch of an emerging paradigm of mission provided by David Bosch and adopts the premise that we can see a new public paradigm operating in the field of public theology. A truly public theology operates in the public sphere. Today the public sphere is global, torn and divided. Public theology should help to create a more inclusive public sphere in which the public anger of the silenced and excluded voices of the oppressed and marginalized can be heard and addressed by policymakers and practitioners. Public theologies have the task of bringing that public anger to effective policy resolution, while resisting the privatization of areas of national life that once were scrutinized in the public domain. Public theologians have to identify issues of public concern that have already been removed from public scrutiny, developing civic and political strategies to bring them back into an expanded public sphere.

scholarly journals The Māori public sphere

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
News Media ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
General Aspects

At this moment in New Zealand’s history there is a need for healthy political debate on a range of issues. Specifically, the foreshore and seabed issue has created division and fears between Māori and Pakeha and brought the Treaty of Waitangi to the fore again. As well, settlements of historic grievances with Māori have added to growing Pakeha unease. In this climate there is a need for wide-ranging public discussion of these issues, and the news media seem the obvious site for those discussions. But how well are the New Zealand news media fulfilling that role? This commentary takes the public sphere to be the sum total of all visible decision-making processes within a culture and uses this concept as an analytical tool to examine aspects of the health of New Zealand’s democracy. It uses discourse analysis approaches to show how the mainstream media are in fact isolating Māori from the general public sphere and, after outlining some general aspects of the Māori public sphere, argues that the news media’s methodologies, grounded in European-based techniques and approaches, are incapable of interacting with the Māori public sphere. I am arguing that while there is an appearance of an increased awareness and discussion of cultural issues, the mainstream media are, in reality, sidelining Māori voices and controlling the political discussion in favour of the dominant culture. They are therefore not fulfilling their self-assigned role of providing information for people to function within our democracy. Keywords: 

scholarly journals Habermas, Taylor, and Connolly on Secularism, Pluralism, and the Post-Secular Public Sphere

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaltsas
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
William Connolly ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Political Solidarity ◽  
Internal Relationship

The main purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the relationships between secularism, pluralism, and the post-secular public sphere in the thought of Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and William Connolly. The three authors develop a thorough critique of secularism which implies a radical break with the dogmatic idea of removing religion from the public sphere. My main objective is to show that this critique is related to a normative understanding of our post-secular situation and requires a rethinking of the boundaries of the public sphere in relation to the predicament of pluralism. Arguing against the post-metaphysical conception of secularism, Taylor develops a critique of Habermas’s “institutional translation proviso”, and Connolly stresses the agonistic dimension of the post-secular public sphere. I take these criticisms into account, while arguing that Taylor and Connolly are unable to provide a sound basis for the legitimacy of our institutional settings. In contrast to Taylor and Connolly, I propose a reading of Habermas’s theory based on the internal relationship between universal justification and the everyday contexts of pre-political solidarity. I conclude with a focus on the need to take into account the agonistic dimension of the post-secular public sphere.

Individuierung, Autonomie und Social Media. Überlegungen zum Strukturwandel von Öffentlichkeit und Privatheit

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-199
Author(s):  
David Waldecker ◽  
Oliver Schmidtke ◽  
Kathrin Englert
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Text Images

Abstract The internet has led to a rearrangement of the public and private spheres. Social media in particular have contributed to the blurring of boundaries between public and private as they allow for unrestricted self-representation via text, images, and video to a more or less unlimited online audience. More than ever, individuals are thus forced to take into account questions of un/desired observability. For a critical analysis of this development, this article draws upon Jürgen Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Beate Rössler’s The Value of Privacy. Both authors argue that the modulation of publicness and privacy is intertwined with the process of individuation and hence concerns the autonomy of the individual, as self-realization depends upon responses from others, but also upon the ability to withdraw from public scrutiny. Drawing upon their findings, the article discusses if and how social media enhance or delimit self-realization and therefore serve or hinder individuation and autonomy.

The Public Sphere in Emerging Infectious Disease Communication: Recipient or Active and Vocal Partner?

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anat Gesser-Edelsburg ◽  
Yaffa Shir-Raz ◽  
Nathan Walter ◽  
Emilio Mordini ◽  
Dimitris Dimitriou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Information Flow ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Health Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Public Sphere

ABSTRACTObjectiveRecent years have seen advances in theories and models of risk and crisis communication, with a focus on emerging epidemic infection. Nevertheless, information flow remains unilateral in many countries and does not take into account the public’s polyvocality and the fact that its opinions and knowledge often “compete” with those of health authorities. This article addresses the challenges organizations face in communicating with the public sphere.MethodsOur theoretical approach is conceptualized through a framework that focuses on the public sphere and that builds upon existing guidelines and studies in the context of health and pandemics. We examine how health organizations cope with the public’s transformation from recipients to an active and vocal entity, ie, how and to what extent health organizations address the public’s anxiety and concerns arising in the social media during outbreaks.ResultsAlthough international organizations have aspired to relate to the public as a partner, this article identifies notable gaps.ConclusionsOrganizations must involve the public throughout the crisis and conduct dialogues free of prejudices, paternalism, and preconceptions. Thereby, they can impart precise and updated information reflecting uncertainty and considering cultural differences to build trust and facilitate cooperation with the public sphere. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:447–458)

The Suffering of the Perpetrators: The Ethics of Traumatic German Historicity in Karen Bass's Young Adult World War II Novels

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77
Author(s):  
Doris Wolf
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Childhood Studies ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
World War ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Adult World ◽  
The Public Sphere

This paper examines two young adult novels, Run Like Jäger (2008) and Summer of Fire (2009), by Canadian writer Karen Bass, which centre on the experiences of so-called ordinary German teenagers in World War II. Although guilt and perpetration are themes addressed in these books, their focus is primarily on the ways in which Germans suffered at the hands of the Allied forces. These books thus participate in the increasingly widespread but still controversial subject of the suffering of the perpetrators. Bringing work in childhood studies to bear on contemporary representations of German wartime suffering in the public sphere, I explore how Bass's novels, through the liminal figure of the adolescent, participate in a culture of self-victimisation that downplays guilt rather than more ethically contextualises suffering within guilt. These historical narratives are framed by contemporary narratives which centre on troubled teen protagonists who need the stories of the past for their own individualisation in the present. In their evacuation of crucial historical contexts, both Run Like Jäger and Summer of Fire support optimistic and gendered narratives of individualism that ultimately refuse complicated understandings of adolescent agency in the past or present.

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