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The Public Sphere As Site Of Emancipation And Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique Of Digital Communication, David Ingram, Asaf Bar-Tura
The Public Sphere As Site Of Emancipation And Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique Of Digital Communication, David Ingram, Asaf Bar-Tura
David Ingram
Habermas claims that an inclusive public sphere is the only deliberative forum for generating public opinion that satisfies the epistemic and normative conditions underlying legitimate decision-making. He adds that digital technologies and other mass media need not undermine – but can extend – rational deliberation when properly instituted. This paper draws from social epistemology and technology studies to demonstrate the epistemic and normative limitations of this extension. We argue that current online communication structures fall short of satisfying the required epistemic and normative conditions. Furthermore, the extent to which Internet-based communications contribute to legitimate democratic opinion and will formation depends …
From Undemocratic To Democratic Civil Society: Japan's Volunteer Fire Departments, Mary Alice Haddad
From Undemocratic To Democratic Civil Society: Japan's Volunteer Fire Departments, Mary Alice Haddad
Mary Alice Haddad
How do undemocratic civic organizations become compatible with democratic civil society? How do local organizations merge older patriarchal, hierarchical values and practices with newer more egalitarian, democratic ones? This article tells the story of how volunteer fire departments have done this in Japan. Their transformation from centralized war instrument of an authoritarian regime to local community safety organization of a full-fledged democracy did not happen overnight. A slow process of demographic and value changes helped the organization adjust to more democratic social values and practices. The way in which this organization made the transition offers important lessons for emerging democracies …
Participatory Democracy And The Renewal Of Radical Politics, Stephen D'Arcy
Participatory Democracy And The Renewal Of Radical Politics, Stephen D'Arcy
Stephen D'Arcy
In recent decades, the project of radically transforming societies to create communities that are in some sense 'socialist' has undergone a profound crisis. This crisis has sometimes looked like a complete collapse of the radical Left. In this paper, I make the case for a cautiously optimistic assessment of the prospects for a self-reinvention by the North American radical Left, on the basis of grassroots organizing for a non-statist, egalitarian and participatory-democratic alternative to capitalism.