scholarly journals The Public Sphere's Metamorphosis – The Triangular Relation Between the NGO, the State, and Globalization

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 124-128
Author(s):  
Azelarabe Bennani
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

The issue we will discuss is related to the use of the Internet by the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to improve the social development in the African and international context. We will also discuss the philo-sophical background of the notion of ?public sphere‘ by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Departing from the situation in Morocco, we observe that the lasting democratization process aims to improve the participation of the public sphere in the agency of social life. Taking for granted that society is not homo-geneous as expected, we observe that it is divided into the political establishment, including the state, par-liament, and the political institutions; in the social, religious and cultural institutions and the civil society. The state aims to enhance the participation of the other social spheres in the programme set by the government. The task is to engage the public sphere in the so called ?partnership‘ in the realization of its social pro-grammes.

The Judicialization of the Public Sphere in Israel

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 500-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itzhak Galnoor
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractJudicialization in this article is the predisposition to find a solution in adjudication to types of dispute that had been settled previously in a socio-economic-political framework. “Legislative judicialization” (or over-legalization) is also a predisposition according to which the variegated spheres of our lives need to be regulated through a formal code of laws. In the political arena the questions relating to judicialization are: Is the assumption that legal decisions are able to save politics – mainly democratic values and abiding by the derived rules of the game – a valid one? Can one institution of the political system (broadly defined) – the law court – rescue the two other, the parliament and the government, in difficult times? Assuming that “successful” intervention by the judicial institution will cause the other two to abide strictly by the rule of law, could it at the same time curb their effective steering capacity, which is their main task? And conversely, if the steering capacity and the leadership ability to make “good” decisions are so flimsy – would it not be desirable to have judicial review to ensure that the political institutions at least make “proper” decisions that are not extremely unreasonable? These are the main questions discussed in this article.The findings regarding the judicialization of politics point out not only to the eagerness of the law courts, but mainly to the weakening of the political system, to the point where the Knesset, the Government and the political parties find it most difficult to function without the assistance given them by the law courts. And yet, did the judicial branch “save” the other two branches? Obviously, this has not happened thus far. In Israel, a profound democratic deficit exists in the political system due to the fact, among other things, that the political institutions are incapable of coping with the continuing internal and external crises. In Israeli society, judicialization is but a symptom of a wide-ranging predicament that requires a richer bill of fare than more laws and more adjudication. It consists of: the social grounding of democratic values; renewal of trust and confidence in the political institutions; strengthening the political parties; recognition of the contribution of civil organizations and the media; strengthening the local authorities, and more. This is the real arena, because there is a breaking point to the over-judicialization of the public sphere beyond which lies total anarchy.

The Necropolitics of Documents and the Slow Death of Prisoners in Turkey

2019 ◽  
pp. 97-117
Author(s):  
Başak Can
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Penal Institutions ◽  
Multiple State ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

The government used medico-legal documentation of prisoners’ health condition to solve the biopolitical crisis in penal institutions immediately after the end of death fast (2000-2007) and released hundreds of hunger strikers, who suffered from incurable conditions. That the state turned a political crisis into a medical one using the illness clause had unprecedented consequences for how claims are made in the political sphere. Human rights activists, Kurdish and leftist politicians are now using the plight of ill prisoners to make political arguments in the public sphere. The health conditions of political prisoners, specifically the use of the illness clause has thus emerged as one of the most contentious fields in the encounters between the state and its opponents. This chapter examines how temporality works as an instrument of necropolitics through the slow production and circulation of the medico-legal bureaucratic documents that are produced through encounters with multiple state officials. I argue, first, that medico-legal processes surrounding the detainees are mediated through the discretionary sovereign acts of multiple state officials, including but not limited to physicians, and second, that legal medicine as a technology of state violence is central to understanding the intertwined histories of sovereignty and biopolitics in Turkey.

scholarly journals Social consequences of the 2020 regional elections in Indonesia under the covid-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-542
Author(s):  
V. L. Muzykant ◽  
M. A. Muqsith
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Regional Elections

The article considers the relationship between the 2020 regional elections in Indonesia under the covid-19 pandemic, public space, and political activism in the social media. The covid-19 pandemic has changed the social, political and cultural fabric of the contemporary world. First, the covid-19 threatened the countrys healthcare system, then it affected other aspects of social life, including the political sphere. The pandemic has been exacerbated by the spread of misinformation about the covid-19, which is also known as the infodemic. Thus, the covid-19 pandemic influenced the choice of holding elections or delaying it until the situation is under control. The development of the social media encourages political activism in the political public sphere and makes it more diverse in the sphere of egalitarianism. The political public sphere becomes increasingly dynamic and critical to various policies. Indonesia did not postpone the 2020 regional elections under the covid-19 crisis. According to the health protocol, this decision had its pros and cons in the digital space. The authors show that political activists in the social media called for prioritizing health rather than the process of democratization through elections, while the government supporters insisted on having elections even in the covid-19 pandemic situation. Finally, the 2020 regional elections were held but were followed by various incidents. The question is whether the governments argument to hold elections under the covid-19 pandemic was reasonable or, on the contrary, contributed to the wider spread of the covid-19 in Indonesia. Deliberative democracy should consider civil participation as the main pillar of the political system, which is relevant for the new social reality as based on the new social media technologies.

The Contentious Public Sphere

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Wen Lei
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Legal Subjects

Since the mid-2000s, public opinion and debate in China have become increasingly common and consequential, despite the ongoing censorship of speech and regulation of civil society. How did this happen? This book shows how the Chinese state drew on law, the media, and the Internet to further an authoritarian project of modernization, but in so doing, inadvertently created a nationwide public sphere in China—one the state must now endeavor to control. The book examines the influence this unruly sphere has had on Chinese politics and the ways that the state has responded. It shows that the development of the public sphere in China has provided an unprecedented forum for citizens to influence the public agenda, demand accountability from the government, and organize around the concepts of law and rights. It demonstrates how citizens came to understand themselves as legal subjects, how legal and media professionals began to collaborate in unexpected ways, and how existing conditions of political and economic fragmentation created unintended opportunities for political critique, particularly with the rise of the Internet. The emergence of this public sphere—and its uncertain future—is a pressing issue with important implications for the political prospects of the Chinese people. The book offers new possibilities for thinking about the transformation of state–society relations.

The Watchdog Still Barks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Knobel
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Action ◽  
News Media ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Free Press ◽  
The Public ◽  
Internet Age ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

This chapter discusses the erosion of the newspaper business and presents arguments as to why the free press is important, even in the Internet age. It also details the research behind this volume, and argues that no other function of a free press is as important as its ability to monitor the work of the government. The presence of a vibrant press to monitor government is not just important on the micro level but is essential to the proper functioning of our democracy. In fact, the work of the news media is valued because it helps empower the “public sphere,” meaning a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Here, the public sphere is not just a virtual or imagined place to discuss public affairs, but it is also a mechanism to enable citizens to influence social action.

ICT and E-Democracy

2011 ◽  
pp. 1789-1793
Author(s):  
Robert A. Cropf
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
The State ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private Citizens ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
The Public Sphere

The virtual public sphere does not exist and operate the same everywhere. Every virtual public sphere is different because each country’s economic, social, political, and cultural characteristics and relations are varied. As a result, the impact of information communication technology (ICT) on political and social conditions will also differ from one country to another. According to the German philosopher, Jürgen Habermas (1989,1996), the public sphere is a domain existing outside of the private sphere of family relations, the economic sphere of business and commerce, and the governmental sphere dominated by the state. The public sphere contributes to democracy by serving as a forum for deliberation about politics and civic affairs. According to Habermas, the public sphere is marked by liberal core beliefs such as the freedoms of speech, press, assembly and communication, and “privacy rights, which are needed to ensure society’s autonomy from the state” (Cohen & Arato, 1992, p. 211). Thus, the public sphere is defined as a domain of social relations that exist outside of the roles, duties and constraints established by government, the marketplace, and kinship ties. Habermas’ public sphere is both a historical description and an ideal type. Historically, what Habermas refers to as the bourgeois public sphere emerged from the 18th century Enlightenment in Europe and went into decline in the 19th century. As an ideal type, the public sphere represents an arena, absent class and other social distinctions, in which private citizens can engage in critical, reasoned discourse regarding politics and culture. The remainder of this article is divided into three parts. In the first part, the background of virtual public spheres is discussed by presenting a broad overview of the major literature relating to ICT and democracy as well as distinguishing between virtual and public spheres and e-government. The second section deals with some significant current trends and developments in virtual public spheres. Finally, the third section discusses some future implications for off-line civil society of virtual public spheres.

Performing Artivism: Feminists, Lawyers, and Online Legal Mobilization in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 678-705
Author(s):  
Di Wang ◽  
Sida Liu
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Mobilization ◽  
The Public ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Performance Arts ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

In authoritarian contexts where the state is the primary performer in the public sphere and legal mobilization is constrained and repressed, activists often seek to carve out a public space to confront the frontstage and backstage of the state’s performance in order to pursue collective action. Comparing the online legal mobilization of feminist and lawyer activists in China, this article investigates how performance arts are used by activists to challenge the authoritarian state in the age of social media. Performing “artivism” is to create conspicuous spectacles in the public eye for the purposes of exposing the state’s illegal or repressive backstage actions or promoting alternative values and norms different from the official ideology. By subversively disrupting the evidential boundaries set by the state, Chinese activists have been able to gain momentum and public support for their legal mobilization. However, it was precisely the success of their artivism that contributed to the government crackdowns on both feminists and lawyers in 2015.

scholarly journals Un/making the British Asian Male Athlete: Race, Legibility and the State

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Burdsey
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Male Athlete ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
British Muslims ◽  
Asian Male ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
British Asians

This article explores the social construction of the British Asian male sport star. It foregrounds an analysis of the racial state, primarily its biopolitical function in (re)affirming racialised models of citizenship and contemporary hierarchies of belonging. Drawing on conceptualisations of legibility, the article argues that this relationship between race and the state is necessary to understand the processes by which such athletes are made intelligible in the popular imagination. Empirically, the article focuses on the articulations, experiences and performativity of British Asian Muslim international cricketer, Moeen Ali, during the summer of 2014. It suggests that these examples reflect the contestation and de/legitimisation of various forms of social, cultural and political attachment and embodiment within the public sphere. The article argues that the extent to which athletes such as Ali are made il/legible in sport is linked inextricably to the way in which British Asians and British Muslims are made il/legible in society. Finally, the article considers the spaces, contexts and discourses within which British Asian athletes can(not) represent themselves; and the dominant forms of being, speaking and thinking with which they must conform to meet the requirements of elite sporting citizenship.

scholarly journals PRAGMATICS OF LANGUAGE AND VALUES IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: TOWARDS AN EXPANSIVE PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO THE USED DISCOURSE

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (04) ◽  
pp. 221-231
Author(s):  
Youness HABBACH
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Digital Sphere

This research aims at analysing the pragmatic prominent discourse in the public sphere, the digital sphere in particular, that reflects special changes in the society. The meant discourse has not been investigated adequately and sufficiently namely the social, the political and the digital virtual discourses which bear an effective semantic and pragmatic power on the public space and at the same time incorporate strong transformations in the values patterns. This study utilizes a pragmatic approach, since the pragmatics is a study of using language in communication, and works on analysing daily discourses using a journalistic editorial. So, what are the changes reflected by this discourse? And what are the values represented and expressed by the prevailing discourses in the public sphere?

scholarly journals The principle of exclusive citizenship and a foreigner's status

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Predrag Terzić
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Public Sphere

The process of creating a modern state and forming political institutions corresponds to the process of transforming the subjects of the past into a community constituted on the principle of citizenship. The citizen becomes the foundation of the political community and the subject, which in interaction with other citizens, forms the public sphere. However, this does not mean that all members of the community have the same rights and obligations contained in the status of a citizen. Excluding certain categories of residents from the principle of citizenship raises a number of issues that delegitimize the existing order by colliding with the ideas of justice, freedom and equality. The aim of this short research is to clarify the principle of citizenship, its main manifestations and excluded subjects, as well as the causes that are at the root of the concept of exclusive citizenship. A brief presentation of the idea of multiculturalism does not intend to fully analytically explain this concept, but only to present in outline one of the ways of overcoming the issue of exclusive citizenship. In order to determine the social significance of the topic, a part of the text is dedicated to the ideas that form the basis of an exclusive understanding of citizenship, the reasons for its application and the far-reaching consequences of social tensions and unrest, which cannot be ignored.

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