Tom Crook and Glen O'Hara, eds. Statistics and the Public Sphere: Numbers and the People in Modern Britain, c. 1800–2000. Routledge Studies in Modern British History. London: Routledge, 2011. Pp. 276. $125.00 (cloth).

AbstractThis article responds to the pieces collected in this special issue of the Journal of British Studies, all of which seek to take some notion of the politics of the public sphere and either apply it to, or break it upon the wheel of, various versions of British history during the post-Reformation period. It seeks to bring the other articles into conversation both with one another as well as with existing work on the topic.

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Trials and Tribulations

How Russia Learned to Talk ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199546428.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 65-97

Author(s):

Stephen Lovell

Keyword(s):

Public Sphere ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Public Attention ◽

The Public ◽

High Profile ◽

The People ◽

The Press ◽

The Public Sphere ◽

People Movement ◽

The City

This chapter tells the story of public speaking in Russia from the imposition of greater restrictions on the public sphere in 1867 through to the eve of Alexander II’s assassination in 1881. It shows that in this period the focus of the Russian public switched from the zemstvo to the courtroom, where a number of high-profile trials took place (and were reported, sometimes in stenographic detail, in the press). The chapter examines the careers and profiles of some of Russia’s leading courtroom orators. It also explores the activities of the Russian socialists (populists), in particular the ‘Going to the People’ movement of 1873–4 and later propaganda efforts in the city and the courtroom. It ends by considering the intensification of public discourse at the end of the 1870s: the Russo-Turkish War saw a surge of patriotic mobilization, but at the same time the populist adoption of terrorism seized public attention.

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Japanese Buddhism and the Public Sphere: From the End of World War II to the Post-Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Power Plant Accident

Journal of Religion in Japan ◽

10.1163/22118349-12341237 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 203-225 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Shimazono Susumu

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Public Sphere ◽

Public Space ◽

Nuclear Power ◽

The Public ◽

The People ◽

The Media ◽

The Public Sphere ◽

Definition Of ◽

Hanshin Earthquake

Abstract Until the 1990s, a commonly held view in Japan was that Buddhism had withdrawn from public space, or that Buddhism had become a private concern. Although Buddhist organizations conducted relief and support activities for the people affected at the time of the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, they were often seen to be out of place, and little attention was given to them by the media. However recently there are areas in which Buddhism can be seen as playing new roles in the public sphere. Religious organizations seem to be expected to perform functions in fields that lie outside the narrow definition of religion. These expectations are becoming stronger among Buddhist organizations as well. In this paper, I describe some areas in the public sphere in which Buddhist groups are starting to play important roles including disaster relief, support of the poor and people without relatives, provision of palliative care and spiritual care, and involvement in environmental and nuclear plant issues.

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Ovid, the Res Publica, and the ‘Imperial Presidency’: Public Figures and Popular Freedoms in Augustan Rome and America

Polis The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought ◽

10.1163/20512996-12340260 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 123-144

Author(s):

Nandini B. Pandey

Keyword(s):

Public Sphere ◽

Final Section ◽

Information Access ◽

The Public ◽

Public Property ◽

Imperial Presidency ◽

Public Figures ◽

The People ◽

The Public Sphere ◽

Res Publica

Abstract How did Romans perceive the changing relationships among leaders, the people, and the public sphere as their commonwealth (res publica) fell under the control of an emperor? This paper examines Ovid’s uses of the Latin adjective publicus, ‘public, common, open’, to explore strands of implicitly ‘republican’ political thought behind his poetic corpus. Ovid first celebrates Augustus’ material benefactions as common goods for private consumption; then dramatises the tragic consequences of arbitrary domination; and finally, from exile, treats the emperor himself as a public property, subject to his people’s spectatorship and sovereignty of judgment. A final section draws on Ovid’s thinking on privacy, publicity, and information access to explore themes related to America’s ‘imperial presidency’, from the Founders’ emphasis on a free press to the recent interplay of secrecy, celebrity, and ‘sunshine’ laws.

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