Public Spheres and Civil Society in Selected Pre-Modern Societies: Some Comparative Observations

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Spheres

Introduction

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Robert A. Cropf ◽  
Scott Krummenacher
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Conceptual Development ◽  
First Century ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Impact

As the second decade of the twenty-first century begins, information and communication technology has brought about significant changes in the way that people participate in political discourse and engage in civil society. This has led to a surge in scholarly interest in virtual public spheres, or the deployment of network structures to advance public discourse with the goal to influence political outcomes. This book brings together international scholars to analyze the impact of ICT on civil society, and in particular, the transition from e-government to e-democracy that is facilitated by virtual public spheres. Contributions to this book address several important issues ranging from the conceptual development of virtual public spheres to the challenges facing e-participation and e-government efforts. Several contributors to this book touch upon the conditions needed to facilitate e-democracy and the challenges confronting e-democracy efforts in developing countries. A little explored area of e-government, e-administration, is correctly identified by several chapters as potentially making contributions to e-democracy and virtual public spheres.

Old and new questions for the public sphere: historicizing its theoretical relevance in post–Cold War South Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-170
Author(s):  
Jiyeon Kang
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
The Public ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Public Sphere

In this article, I reflect on the theoretical rise of the public sphere in the 1990s from the vantage point of South Korea, connecting this approach to the broader context of the global post–Cold War transition. The case of South Korea – a postcolonial, authoritarian country with deep geopolitical connections to the West – offers a node of the global embrace of the public sphere in the 1990s for theorizing the transformation of authoritarian countries into liberal capitalist democracies, elevating the distinction between state and civil society as a prominent focus. However, the establishment of authoritarian public spheres in Asia and the illiberal turn of public spheres in the Global North in the 2010s call upon scholars to identify relevant questions regarding current public spheres while addressing what essential components define the public sphere. Here, I call for critical attention to the loci of power and oppression, to the production of critical practices within a particular social configuration, and to coexistence within a civil society. I end the article by proposing a set of suggestions for reading, theorizing, and teaching public sphere theories.

scholarly journals Transnational civil society and informal public spheres in the nuclear non-proliferation regime

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 486-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J Norman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
General Public ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
International Regimes ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Transnational Civil Society ◽  
Multi Stakeholder

Scholars charting the emergence of transnational public spheres often focus on the socio-spatial sites that are generated by civil society organisations in their interactions with the institutions of global governance. These sites can reflect either strong public spheres within the formal decision-making structures of international regimes, or segmented and general public spheres on their periphery. In practice, they all suffer key democratic deficiencies in the ability to either communicatively generate public opinion or achieve collective will-formation. I argue that if civil society organisations can successfully weave together both general and segmented public spheres on the periphery of international regimes, their individual democratic deficiencies could be addressed. To demonstrate evidence of these interconnected ‘informal public spheres’, I turn to the nuclear non-proliferation regime, where public deliberation has been largely invisible and ineffectual within the formal decision-making structures of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The emergence of a new civil society organisation-led ‘humanitarian initiative’ on the periphery of the regime, comprising multi-stakeholder initiatives in conjunction with civil society organised social forums, reflects the interconnection of segmented and general public spheres. This innovative initiative has effectively enhanced transnational public debate on disarmament, while gaining crucial political traction within the regime.

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