127 - Thematic Session. Reconceptualizing the Civil Sphere

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

Behind the proliferation of convenings and conversations within public life, there is a powerful hope that problems can be resolved simply by getting people to talk to one another and work things out. This hope resonates with powerful theoretical claims, notably by Habermas, concerning the transformative role of new kinds of publics as a feature of modernity. But this hope easily turns utopian, allowing us to evade questions of which conversations change the world? Through what mechanisms or processes? Through the analyses of episodes of conflict and political engagement, this session opens a conversation on the sociological reconception of the civil sphere.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizers

• Elisabeth S. Clemens, University of Chicago

• Francesca Polletta, University of California, Irvine

Presider

• Thomas M. Medvetz, University of California, San Diego

Panelist

• Nina Eliasoph, University Southern California

Individual Presentations

• Meaning-Making in the Civil Sphere: a Cultural-Sociological Alternative to the Socratic Tradition - Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University

• Scenarios in Debate: Mapping Global Futures from the Grassroots to the World Polity - Ann Mische, University of Notre Dame

• Replacing Conversation and Conflict with Choice: Civic Participation and the Consumer-Citizen - Elisabeth S. Clemens, University of Chicago

Discussant

• Thomas M. Medvetz, University of California, San Diego