scholarly journals The XII Duke of Osuna, between aristocratic spirit and Dandy. The Russian embassy as a matter of honor

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-95
Author(s):  
J. Pajarín Domínguez
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Saint Petersburg ◽  
Juan Valera ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Prestige

Russia   and  Spain re-established  relations  in  1856  after a  two-decade  diplomatic crisis  caused  by disagreements  over   Carlism. The  appointment of  Mariano  Téllez-Girón,  XII   Duke  of  Osuna,  as the  plenipotentiary minister  in the  Russian  court signaled a friendly reconciliation between the  two  countries.  However, it meant above all the  reaffirmation of the  Spanish nobleman, who  left his mark  on the  Russian  royal  and public  sphere.  The  Duke of Osuna knew  how to gain the   Tsar’s trust and displayed his  sense of  honor,   imbued with   the   aristocratic  spirit   and  the   European  dandy.   This  work provides a portrait of the  Duke of Osuna during  his embassy in Saint Petersburg, against the  backdrop of the  ideal of Spanish liberalism, and of the  dandy as a new  archetype of bourgeois honor.  The Letters from   Russia,   by Juan  Valera,  secretary of  that embassy,  help   to understand the  controversial image displayed by Osuna in the  Court of Alexander II. The Duke not only adapted to the  Russian  noble and autocratic  customs,  but   also   presented a very  particular way   of understanding the  figure of the  nobleman, which allowed him to refute the  existing stereotypes around Spain, as well as reinforce the  prestige of  Queen Elizabeth,  formally  recognized  not only  by Russia,  but  by the  rest of the  powers.

scholarly journals Trump, memes and the Alt-right: Emotive and affective criticism and praise

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 789-809
Author(s):  
Lyndon C.S. Way
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Authority Figures ◽  
Critical Discourse Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
The Ideal

Internet memes are the most pervasive and malleable form of digital popular culture (Wiggins 2019: vii). They are a way a society expresses and thinks of itself (Denisova 2019: 2) used for the purpose of satire, parody, critique to posit an argument (Wiggins 2019, see also Ponton 2021, this issue). The acts of viewing, creating, sharing and commenting on memes that criticise or troll authority figures have become central to our political processes becom[ing] one of the most important forms of political participation and activism today (Merrin 2019: 201). However, memes do not communicate to us in logical arguments, but emotionally and affectively through short quips and images that entertain. Memes are part of a new politics of affectivity, identification, emotion and humour (Merrin 2019: 222). In this paper, we examine not only what politics memes communicate to us, but how this is done. We analyse memes, some in mainstream social media circulation, that praise and criticise the authoritarian tendencies of former US President Donald Trump, taken from 4Chan, a home of many alt-right ideas. Through a Multimodal Critical Discourse Studies approach, we demonstrate how images and lexical choices in memes do not communicate to us in logical, well-structured arguments, but lean on affective and emotional discourses of racism, nationalism and power. As such, though memes have the potential to emotionally engage with their intended audiences, this is done at the expense of communicating nuanced and detailed information on political players and issues. This works against the ideal of a public sphere where debate and discussion inform political decisions in a population, essential pillars of a democratic society (Habermas 1991).

scholarly journals Questioning the Ideal of the Public Sphere: The Emotional Turn

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511985217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media System ◽  
Essential Resource ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Ideal

This article discusses the usefulness and limitations of Habermas concept of the public sphere, on the basis of the trajectory of the author’s work. It starts from the observation that the concept has generated a rich scholarly debate on tensions between the normative ideals and the nitty-gritty lived experience of mediated publics. While fundamental norms of interaction associated with the ideal of the public sphere remain essential to the creation of meaningful debate, it also relies on a series of unhelpful binary distinctions that may be neither normatively desirable nor attainable. Key assumptions of the public sphere model include the idea that public debate should be rational, impartial, dispassionate, and objective. This, in turn, implies the undesirability of emotionality, partiality, passion, and subjectivity. In recent years, particularly in response to the rise of digital and social media, scholars have begun to question the rigid delineation of such norms. The article draws on the author’s work to illuminate how an “emotional turn” in media studies has opened up for a more nuanced appraisal of the role of subjectivity and personal stories in the articulation of the common good, challenging Habermasian understandings of rational-critical debate. This “emotional turn” constitutes an essential resource for theorizing public debate as it unfolds within a hybrid media system, for better and for worse. The article shows how the “emotional turn” has shaped the author’s work on mediated public debate, ranging from letters to the editor and user-generated content to Twitter hashtags and the “emotional architecture” of Facebook.

Authority as Perceived by the Schoolgoing Senegalese Adolescents

1980 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 751-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Vandewiele
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Students ◽  
School Environment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Ideal Teacher ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Prestige

With the help of a questionnaire addressed to 882 Senegalese secondary students we have investigated their views of the ideal mother, ideal father, and ideal teacher. We also examined how they perceived their relationships with their teachers and the incidence of family and school environment. Starting from Tap's classification (1966), we have tried to show that love and confidence were the qualities most expected from mothers. On the other hand, characteristics such as authority, pedagogical preoccupations, and justice were expected from fathers. Contrary to Tap's findings (1966) for French subjects, gentleness was a quality given more for fathers than for mothers. Conversely mothers were expected by our subjects to be more dynamic than fathers which contrasts with Tap's results. The students value the moral or affective qualities of the ideal teachers much more than their intellectual qualities. The psychological traits of their actual teachers are described in a rather severe manner; unfavourable answers are more frequent. The prestige of the teacher seems to be still high; they are highly respected in the family circles of 81% of the students. Although the relationships are unequal between parents and teachers intellectually, contacts between them are highly desirable for 75% of the students.

Sport, Twitter Hashtags, and the Public Sphere: A Qualitative Test of the Phenomenon Through a Curt Schilling Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-400
Author(s):  
Brendan O’Hallarn ◽  
Stephen L. Shapiro ◽  
Marion E. Hambrick ◽  
D.E. Wittkower ◽  
Lynn Ridinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Negative Behaviors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Qualitative Test ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Ideal

Popular social media platforms have faced recent criticism because of the tendency for users to exhibit strongly negative behaviors, threatening the open, prodemocratic discourse that proponents believe was made possible when social media sites first gained widespread adoption a decade ago. A conceptual model suggests that the microblogging site Twitter, and especially sport-themed debate through hashtags, can still realize these ideals. Analyzing a dataset of tweets about the firing of former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling by ESPN on April 20, 2016, as well as a qualitative questionnaire given to the users of the hashtag, this study attempted to ascertain how closely the discourse comes to realizing the ideal of the Habermasian public sphere. The findings demonstrate that although users draw value from participation in the discussion, they are less inclined to desire interaction with other hashtag users, particularly those who disagree with them. This suggests that Twitter hashtags provide an open forum that approaches the participatory requirement of the public sphere, but the lack of back-and-forth engagement suggests the medium is not ideal for the generation of deliberative public opinion.

scholarly journals Adopting an Attitude of Wisdom in Organizational Rhetorical Theory and Practice: Contemplating the Ideal and the Real

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 560-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca J. Meisenbach ◽  
Sarah Bonewits Feldner
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Rhetorical Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Level ◽  
Organizational Rhetoric ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Practical Level ◽  
The Ideal

Research and practice in external rhetoric often fall short of ideals both in terms of widespread use of a rhetorical perspective and in achieving dialogic conditions in the public sphere. In this response, the authors consider potential explanations for this shortfall, focusing on challenges that exist on a theoretical level within organizational rhetoric scholarship and on a practical level as individuals and organizations interact.

Scare stories. Or some arguments for providing journalism with a licence to think

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
GITTE MEYER
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
The Public ◽  
Knowledge Industry ◽  
Social Interests ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Critical Investigation ◽  
The Ideal

Journalists are often blamed for producing scare stories. It seems to have been forgotten that many, perhaps most, modern scare stories are based on scientific risk calculations, and that journalists are not trained in scaring the wits out of people in that particular way. A more precise accusation might be that journalists are eager, unthinking and unquestioning conveyors of results from scientific risk calculations. Calculation of risk has become an important research product; a product fitting nicely into conventional journalistic storytelling, but the concept of risk tends to dilute value disagreement and conflict of interests into seemingly purely factual issues, leaving little room for political debate. Moreover, the cargo attitude of journalism is in conflict with the journalistic ideal of critical investigation and analysis on behalf of the public to stimulate common deliberation in the public sphere. Apparently, the production of scientific knowledge is excluded from the public sphere. Regarding discussions on science and technology, journalists will have to enquire into aspects of facts, values and social interests to live up to the ideal of investigation on behalf of the public. Several obstacles along this path can be identified, one of them being the commercialization of journalism in the media-industry and of scientific research in the knowledge-industry. Universities, in the search for a meaning of life, might consider providing a home for independent, reflexive journalism on science in a social context.

scholarly journals Democratic Speech in Divided Times

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxime Lepoutre
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Divided Societies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Democratic Life ◽  
The Ideal

Democratic Speech in Divided Times offers a comprehensive account of the norms that should govern public discourse in circumstances marked by deep and often unjust social divisions. Part I investigates what forms of democratic speech are desirable in these settings. This part shows, firstly, that some forms of public discourse that are symptomatic of division can nevertheless play a crucial democratic function. In particular, it argues that emotionally charged speech—and most notably, speech voicing deep anger—plays a fundamental role in overcoming entrenched epistemic divisions and in facilitating the exchange of shared reasons. This part also examines how, in contrast, other characteristic features of the public discourse of divided societies endanger democratic life. Here, the argument considers the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation, and examines what forms of democratic speech should be used to combat them. Part II considers how realistic the foregoing account of public discourse is. Specifically, it assesses the complications that arise from intergroup antipathy, pervasive political ignorance, and the fragmentation of the public sphere. The normative picture of public discourse that this book defends can largely withstand these problems. And, while these social conditions do qualify the value of democratic speech in some respects, they are at least as problematic for political ideals that give up on inclusive democratic speech altogether. Accordingly, while realising the ideal of democratic speech that this book outlines is challenging, we should not lose patience with this task.

Crowds, Publics, Congregations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Costello
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Qualitative Feature ◽  
Literary Representation ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Single Entity ◽  
The Ideal

This chapter discusses crowds and poetry. Poets have been both repulsed and fascinated by crowds, particularly in the industrialized city where crowds present a challenge to the ideal of the solitary, autonomous poetic subject. And this debate about the identity, cognition, and force of the crowd has been central to literary representation. For many, the crowd has seemed a unified being, a quantitative phenomenon taking on a qualitative feature as a single entity. Poets express not only revulsion but also attraction as the crowd offers an opportunity for expansion. When perceived as uncountable hordes, inassimilable within a public sphere of face-to-face encounter and I/You dialogue, produce an effect of the numerical sublime, appearing as a force of nature or of the supernatural.

13 Communicative Power and the Public Sphere

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Kreide
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Communicative Power ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractA deliberative model of politics has recently been criticized for not being very well equipped to conceptualize public spheres in world society.A first critique is that this model assumes a conception of public spheres that is too idealistic, because it presupposes counterfactual conditions of communication in public discourse that do not meet empirical real word conditions. Secondly, it assumes an antiquated notion of a shared “we” of political actors. Because of this it does not take into consideration the “digital turn” and the ego-centering and depersonalizing effects of social media like Facebook, twitter, and blogs, which have led to a rapid decline of the public sphere. And a third critique states that the deliberative model ignores the fact that politics, and especially protests and revolutions, are not seminar-like debates but spontaneous, chaotic and sometimes violent expressions. So it is not just unreceptive for the “digital space” but also for gathering and protesting in real public places surrounded by military troops.I will argue that all of these critiques fall short. A deliberative model of politics allows us to address the tension between the ideal and the real, the “old media” and the so-called digitalization of public spheres as well as peaceful discourse and violent uprisings. Especially the concept of communicative power, a notion also used by Hannah Arendt, reveals the potential for future participation in digital spaces and public places.

Der ungleiche Wert der Freiheit

1992 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beate Rössler
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Given ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractStarting from the given societal fact of an unequal ‘worth of freedom’ for men and women in pursuing possible plans of life, and the assumption that this difference is due to the distinction between the private and public realm, the author investigates into the gender-structure of recent political theories. Following the lines of the debate between communitarians and liberals she argues for the thesis that while communitarians try to ‘privatize’ the public sphere on the model of the ideal family or given traditions of communities and thus cannot account for the idea of emancipation from given structures and roles, liberals have to ‘publicize’ the private in order to give substance to the idea of an ‘equal worth of freedom’ for men and women. Thus, liberalism has to rethink the theoretical distinction of the private and the public sphere and its practical consequences.

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