scholarly journals An Epistemic Argument for an Egalitarian Public Sphere

Episteme ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Michael Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Political Speech ◽  
The Public ◽  
Normative Problem ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Public Sphere

Abstract The public sphere should be regulated so the distribution of political speech does not correlate with the distribution of income or wealth. A public sphere where people can fund any political speech from their private holdings is epistemically defective. The argument has four steps. First, if political speech is unregulated, the rich predictably contribute a disproportionate share. Second, wealth tends to correlate with substantive political perspectives. Third, greater quantities of speech by the rich can “drown out” the speech of the poor, because of citizens’ limited attention span for politics. Finally, the normative problem with all this is that it reduces the diversity of arguments and evidence citizens become familiar with, reducing the quality of their political knowledge. The clearest implication of the argument is in favour of strict contribution limits and/or public funding for formal political campaigns, but it also has implications for more informal aspects of the public sphere.

scholarly journals Privacy in Public: A Democratic Defense

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-96
Author(s):  
Titus Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Privacy Protection ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Political Speech ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractTraditional arguments for privacy in public suggest that intentionally public activities, such as political speech, do not deserve privacy protection. In this article, I develop a new argument for the view that surveillance of intentionally public activities should be limited to protect the specific good that this context provides, namely democratic legitimacy. Combining insights from Helen Nissenbaum’s contextualism and Jürgen Habermas’s theory of the public sphere, I argue that strategic surveillance of the public sphere can undermine the capacity of citizens to freely deliberate in public and therefore conflicts with democratic self-determination.

scholarly journals A Review of the Halal Poultry Slaughtering from Welfare and Legal Perspectives: Analysis of Research Results

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 11-27
Author(s):  
Karrar Imad Abdulsahib Al-Shammari
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Animal Cruelty ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
Current Review ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Controversial Aspect

The subject of halal slaughtering is one of the most widely discussed issues of animal cruelty and animal welfare in the public sphere. The discrepancy in understanding the contemporary and religious laws pertaining to animal slaughtering does not fully publicize to Islamic and Muslim majority countries especially with respect to interpreting the use of stunning in animals. The electrical stunning is the cheapest, easiest, safest, and most suitable method for slaughtering that is widespread and developed. However, stunning on head of poultry before being slaughtered is a controversial aspect among the Islamic sects due to regulations of the European Union and some other countries. The current review highlights the instructions of halal slaughtering, legal legislation, and the effect of this global practice on poultry welfare and the quality of produced meat.

scholarly journals Rethinking science communication in a changing landscape

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. E
Author(s):  
Frank Kupper ◽  
Carolina Moreno-Castro ◽  
Alessandra Fornetti
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Selection Of

Science communication continues to grow, develop and change, as a practice and field of research. The boundaries between science and the rest of society are blurring. Digitalization transforms the public sphere. This JCOM special issue aims to rethink science communication in light of the changing science communication landscape. How to characterize the emerging science communication ecosystem in relation to the introduction of new media and actors involved? What new practices are emerging? How is the quality of science communication maintained or improved? We present a selection of papers that provide different perspectives on these questions and challenges.

Conclusions: Reclaiming the Public in Policing

2019 ◽  
pp. 146-172
Author(s):  
Paul Mutsaers
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Anthropology ◽  
Public Character ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Conceptual Work

This concluding chapter synergizes the previous chapters and adds something new. Both functions are captured by the title, Reclaiming the Public in Policing. First, it argues that the empirical and conceptual work in this book points at the corrosion of the public character of policing, which results in law enforcement agencies that find it increasingly difficult to exclude politics, particularism, and populism from their operations. This part of the chapter concludes that it is imperative that we ‘unthink’ bureaucracy as the social evil of our time and revalue the public contours of policing. A second way to reclaim the ‘public’ in policing, now defined not as a quality of the police but an engaged citizenry that is involved in public debates on the police, concerns the role of police scholars in the public sphere. The chapter advocates a public anthropology of police and reflects on the author's efforts to ‘go public’.

Habermas, Virtue Epistemology, and Religious Justifications in the Public Sphere

Hypatia ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 422-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Virtue Epistemology ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Epistemic Communities ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Miranda Fricker ◽  
Epistemological Basis

Jürgen Habermas's recent challenge to secular citizens calling for greater inclusivity of religious justifications in the public sphere opens new epistemological debates that could benefit from the rich insights of feminist epistemologists. Despite certain theoretical tensions, there is some common ground between Habermas and recent work in feminist epistemology. Specifically, this article explores the shared interests between Habermas and one feminist theorist in particular, Miranda Fricker. I choose Fricker because her formulation of the epistemological and ethical hybrid virtues of testimonial justice and hermeneutical justice provide efficacious theoretical and practical tools capable of deepening the epistemological basis of Habermas's challenge to secular citizens. After a detailed analysis of Habermas's and Fricker's respective epistemological positions, I argue that Fricker's analysis provides a rich framework for thinking through questions of power, identity, and credibility with respect to religious justifications in the public sphere. In conclusion, this article emphasizes the importance of fostering more robust and just epistemic communities capable of countering the social, political, and ethical injustices of epistemic disauthorization and marginalization.

Political Deliberation & the Adversarial Principle

Daedalus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 146 (3) ◽  
pp. 39-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Manin
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
The Public ◽  
Collective Decisions ◽  
Political Deliberation ◽  
The Public Sphere

Retrieving an insight dating back to antiquity, this essay argues that the confrontation of opposing views and arguments is desirable in political deliberation. But freedom of speech and diversity among deliberators do not suffice to secure that outcome. Therefore we should actively facilitate and encourage the presentation of contrary opinions during deliberation. Such confrontation is our best means of improving the quality of collective decisions. It also counteracts the pernicious fragmentation of the public sphere. It facilitates the comprehension of choices. Lastly, arguing for and against a given decision treats the minority with respect. This essay proposes practical ways of promoting adversarial deliberation, in particular the organization of debates disconnected from electoral competition.

Lottocratic Institutions from a Participatory Perspective

2019 ◽  
pp. 138-160
Author(s):  
Cristina Lafont
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Political Deliberation ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
High Road ◽  
Political Decisions

This chapter explores how we might institutionalize deliberative minipublics in order to serve genuinely democratic goals. In contrast to empowered uses of minipublics that would bypass the citizenry’s political deliberation, citizens could use minipublics for contestatory, vigilant, and anticipatory purposes. These uses of minipublics would improve the quality of deliberation in the public sphere and would also force the political system to take the high road of properly involving the citizenry in the political process. The chapter illustrates these potential forms of “deliberative activism” with the help of examples of actual deliberative polls that James Fishkin has conducted over several decades. This analysis shows how deliberative minipublics can help improve the democratic quality of political deliberation in the public sphere while strengthening citizens’ democratic control over political decisions.

scholarly journals Civility and citizenship: a study for the island of Lesvos, Greece

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Manousos Marangudakis ◽  
Kostas Rontos
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Cultural Characteristics ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Value Preferences

<p>The purpose of this article is to examine the condition of the civil and civic perception of the common good, and the attitudes toward the public sphere in the Greek islands of the Northern Aegean. In particular, we wish to examine whether they constitute a region of particular political-cultural characteristics. Based upon the findings of a previous study (Marangudakis, Rontos, and Xenitidou 2013), we examine the moral self in a political framework:.Following Alexander and Smith. Triandis, and Ramfos we examine the quality of specific moral attributes and value preferences vis-a-vis aspects of modern and pre-modern mentality, as well as the valueand mean- orientation of their purposeful action.</p>

scholarly journals Winning the Battle of Authorities: The Muslim Disputes Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Plague in Contemporary Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 293
Author(s):  
Masdar Hilmy ◽  
Khoirun Niam
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Disease Prevention ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
The Public ◽  
Prevention Protocol ◽  
Entire World ◽  
The Public Sphere

<p>Scholarly works on the way Indonesian Muslims perceive and respond to a pandemic—including Covid-19—have left an untouched theoretical gap. Works on pandemics or plagues mostly consist of sporadic and preliminary brief reflective pieces. This article endeavors to fill the academic gap concerning this theme. This article seeks to portray the dynamics of the religious disputes among Indonesian Muslims about the Covid-19 pandemic that affects the entire world. Using a qualitative method of analysis based on data derived from various sources - such as social and non-social media like newspapers and such - the paper argues that the public sphere serves as an open stage to contest ideas among society members where ideas based on sacred and scientific texts are publicly tested. While the majority of Muslims comply with the official disease prevention protocol, others resist it on the grounds that the protocol might undermine the spirit of Islam and the quality of the faith. Their resistance to some degree indicates the dominance of the deductive paradigm that religious authority is endangered in the public sphere.</p>

scholarly journals The Gender of Pseudotranslation in the Works of Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni, Mme Beccari and Cornélie Wouters

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-95
Author(s):  
Beatrijs Vanacker
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transfer Strategies ◽  
Female Writers ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Gender Specific

While authorship recognition was a challenge for all eighteenth-century aspiring writers regardless of their gender, the social position of women was such that public claims of authorship and ownership over a text were even less self-evident in the public sphere. As will be illustrated in this article, female writers especially made extensive use of transfer strategies (such as translation and pseudotranslation) to establish their authorship, thereby turning paratext and narrative into a dynamic maneuvering space. Considered from a gender perspective, the challenge for eighteenth-century female writers was to gradually “invent” themselves, or rather establish a voice of their own. Taking on a different (cultural) persona—even if only on a paratextual level—could provide them with a discursive “platform” from which they could negotiate their way into the literary field. In order to illustrate this gender-specific emancipatory quality of pseudotranslation, as established mainly in their paratexts, the present article proposes a comparative analysis of their forms and functions in the career and oeuvre of three eighteenth-century French women writers, Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni, Mme Beccari and Cornélie de Wouters, who all made extensive use of pseudo-English fiction.

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