Current Research Projects. European Public Sphere(s)
Tom Moring2006, Nordicom Review
Sign up for access to the world's latest research
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Abstract
AI
AI
This research project investigates the concept of the European Public Sphere and its variations through several interconnected sub-projects. Focusing on empirical forms of public debate in Europe, the project aims to enhance understanding of European cultural and political dynamics and promote democratic openness. Key themes include the representation of self and space in virtual communities, the roles of ethnic minorities in the public sphere, and the construction of otherness in media. By analyzing various cultural and linguistic contexts, the study seeks to explore how disparities affect public engagement and representation in a fragmented European landscape.
Related papers
The Development of a European Public Sphere: A Stalled Project?
European Political Science, 2008
SYMPOSIUM the development of a european public sphere: a stalled project? cristiano bee a , riccardo scartezzini a and alan scott b
The Concept of a European Public Sphere within European Public Discourse
Etikk i Praksis. Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, 2017
This inquiry analyses the concept of a 'European public sphere' within the European public discourse. In particular, it explores the European Communication Strategy for creating an active European citizenship and European public sphere. The European Commission's Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate failed, because it employed homogeneous and static concepts of public sphere and European values. In this way it reduced deliberation to a mere debate. The European Year of Citizens was not sufficiently successful for the same reason. It involved citizens who debated about EU rights, but it did not produce deliberation. The purpose of this inquiry is to show the dialectical relation between the ideas of European values, European identity and European public sphere. This paper emphasizes the performative nature of a European public sphere, European identity and European values. These concepts may be perceived as grand narratives, which aim to generate universal truths.
Conceptualizing European Public Spheres
2004
The development of post-national democracy in Europe depends on the development of an overarching communicative space that functions as a public sphere, viz., a common room created by speakers who are discussing common affairs in front of an audience. This is a place where opinions ideally are formed and changed according to a communicative mode or interaction. The point of departure is Habermas' seminal work on the public sphere from 1962. The author examines the aptness of his recent reformulation of the concept (1992/1996), which is found to be too 'thin'. Further, he distinguishes between a general public sphere, segmented publics and strong publics and clarifies their potential conduciveness to democratic government. General publics are inclusive and open communicative spaces rooted in civil society in the periphery of the political system. Such a sphere is found wanting at the supranational level in Europe. Rather what is discovered are transnational, segmented publics evolving around policy networks constituted by the common interest in certain issues, problems and solutions. The EU also has many strong publics, viz. legally institutionalized discourses specialized on collective will-formation close to the center of the political system.
The Democratic Function of the Public Sphere in Europe
German Law Journal
Democratically legitimized European integration calls for developments in culture and society—which arise naturally in the scope of on-going political, economic and institutional European Union (EU) integration—to be publically debated so they may be politically processed. The space where this happens is the public sphere, or, in the context of the EU, the European public sphere. The latter complements national public spheres. Successful integration among EU Member States is made possible by adhering to a common set of values at the same time as respecting the national identities of the Member States and fostering cultural diversity. By way of Union citizenship rights, individuals are able to make use of and actively promote the Europeanization of societies and cultures. Yet citizens are affected by Europeanization to differing degrees, with only a minority of citizens actively partaking in transnational exchange. In order to account for European integration democratically, the EU t...
The European Public Sphere – Barriers and Limitations
Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, 2018
The European public sphere appears only incidentally and temporarily and even then, European issues are presented through the prism of national benefits or loss. All of this is not conducive to the creation of a European identity, nor the legitimization of EU. Should the media and the journalists be blamed for this state of affairs? How do they perceive their role in the process of European integration? Where, in their opinion, are the causes, which render the creation of a European public sphere impossible? This article will present the results of individual depth interviews (IDI) conducted with German press journalists (16).
Introduction to Public Sphere and Civil Society? Transformations of the European Union
2007
This report approaches the question of whether the EU is moving beyond a narrow regulatory regime from three complementary angles, by addressing: aspects of the EU's general public; aspects of the EU's strong publics (with particular emphasis on the Charter and the Constitutional Convention), and; civil society. Cognizant of the contested character of the EU, the final chapter proposes an analytical framework to map the character of the EU's social constituency. In Chapter 1, Patrizia Nanz sets out on the notion that any bestowal of democratic legitimacy for governing Europe must depend upon the creation of a European public sphere. This entails a deep-seated habit of arguing or engaging in public debates with fellow citizens across national borders where solidarity between them and loyalty to the institutions of Europe can be fostered. Nanz reexamines available concepts of the public sphere, their usefulness and shortcomings in the analysis of today's de-centred and
Rethinking the Public Sphere through Transnationalizing Processes: Europe and Beyond
Quote as: Salvatore, Armando, Oliver Schmidtke and Hans-Jörg Trenz (eds.). 2013. Rethinking the Public Sphere Through Transnationalizing Processes: Europe and Beyond, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [You'll find the Introduction and my chapter in the section 'Book Chapters and Intros' by scrolling down my main academia webpage] This book discusses the extent to which the theoretical relevance and analytical rigor of the concept of the public sphere is affected (or undermined) by current processes of transnationalization. The contributions address fundamental questions concerning the viability of a socially and politically effective public sphere in a post-Westphalian world. To what degree are the theoretical presuppositions regarding the critical function and democratic quality of public deliberation still valid in contemporary societies that adhere decreasingly to the Westphalian logic of closed national political communities and modes of communication? Under what conditions is the critical impetus of the public sphere still applicable in a world that, in Europe and beyond, is increasingly responding to processes of trans-border interaction and communication?
The European Public Sphere: Myth, Reality or Aspiration?
The discussion about the public sphere only began to have significant relevance within the setting of the European Union in the middle of the 1990s when a growing degree of attention was directed towards European integration and the role of national and transnational media in providing thrust for it. Since then, the notion of the public sphere has been seen as a central feature of European democracies, shaping the coherence of political systems and decision-making processes. There has also been a tendency in the literature to perceive the European public sphere (EPS) as having positive effects on the EU by endowing it with legitimacy and providing a space where its institutions and leaders can be made more transparent and accountable. What is disputed throughout this scholarship is the possibility of creating an overarching European public sphere that would act as a transnational discursive space uniting various communication fluxes and actors from all strata of society. However, the answers provided by scholars for this puzzle are at most ambiguous or undecided and seem to be torn between viewing the EPS as aspiration, myth or reality.Bee, C. and Bozzini, E. (eds) (2010) Mapping the European Public Sphere: Institutions, Media and Civil Society. Farnham: Ashgate.Fossum, J. E. and Schlesinger, P. (eds) (2007) The European Union and the Public Sphere: A Communicative Space in the Making? Abingdon: Routledge.Koopmans, R. and Statham, P. (eds) (2010) The Making of a European Public Sphere: Media Discourse and Political Contention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Risse, T. (2010) A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Spheres. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.
EUROSPHERE COUNTRY REPORTS Diversity and the European Public Sphere The Case of Turkey
eurosphere, 2010
Bülent Küçük EUROSPHERE Country Report TURKEY KÜÇÜK ii
Related topics
Related papers
An Overview of Research on the European Public Sphere
EUROSPHERE WORKING PAPER SERIES Online Working Paper No. 03, 2009 together with Christoph Bärenreuter, Monika Mokre, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
The European Union and the public sphere: a communicative space in the making?
2007
The public sphere is a central feature of modern society. So much so that, even where it is in fact suppressed or manipulated, it has to be faked. (Taylor 1995: 260)
The European Public Sphere Does Not Exist (At Least It's Worth Wondering
2009
This article argues that most research conducted on the topic of the European public sphere (EPS) has been heavily influenced by a definition of the public sphere that has been historically promoted by the European Union institutions themselves. Communication and, later on, public opinion have been considered by EU pioneers as ways to overcome the limited competences of the European institutions. By doing so, they heavily influenced later theories of the European public sphere by promoting a conception of the latter based on two major assumptions: the EPS relies on the availability of information about the EU in national media and all EU citizens are members of the EPS. This article proposes alternative research paths about the EPS. The EPS should probably not be thought of in terms of the national media of the member states, nor should it be conceived as including all EU citizens. Rather, the EPS appears as sectoral, heavily selective and including actors from various professional and policies areas that have, in common, a strong interest in EU matters.
Multiple Voices: An Interdiscursive Concept of the European Public Sphere
John E. Fossum, Philip Schlesinger and Geir Kvaerk (eds.), Public Sphere and Civil Society? Transformations of the European Union, ARENA Reports 2, pp. 11-28, 2007
Conceptualizing European Public Spheres. General, Segmented and Strong Publics
The development of post-national democracy in Europe depends on the development of an overarching communicative space that functions as a public sphere, viz., a common room created by speakers who are discussing common affairs in front of an audience. This is a place where opinions ideally are formed and changed according to a communicative mode or interaction. The point of departure is Habermas' seminal work on the public sphere from 1962. The author examines the aptness of his recent reformulation of the concept (1992/1996), which is found to be too 'thin'. Further, he distinguishes between a general public sphere, segmented publics and strong publics and clarifies their potential conduciveness to democratic government. General publics are inclusive and open communicative spaces rooted in civil society in the periphery of the political system. Such a sphere is found wanting at the supranational level in Europe. Rather what is discovered are transnational, segmented pub...
What makes an integrated public sphere? Applying the concepts of the research on the European public sphere to the national public sphere of Germany
MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES AND DEMOCRACY IN AN …
The European Public Sphere
Britain and Germany Imagining the Future of Europe
This text may be downloaded for personal research purposes only. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copy or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper or other series, the year, and the publisher. The author(s)/editor(s) should inform the Max Weber Programme of the EUI if the paper is to be published elsewhere, and should also assume responsibility for any consequent obligation(s).
Towards a European public sphere?
Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 2004
In this paper we address the alleged communication or public sphere deficit of the EU. We develop a systematic approach to the Europeanization of public spheres, which distinguishes three forms of Europeanized political communication: supranational, vertical and horizontal. We propose that the spatial reach and boundaries of public communication can be determined by investigating communicative flows and assessing the relative density of public communication within and between different geopolitical spaces. We apply this model to data on political claim making in seven issue fields in German print media in the year 2000. We find that the degree and forms of Europeanization of political communication vary considerably among policy fields. These differences are strongly linked to the extent and type (supranational or intergovernmental) of competencies of the EU in these fields. Contrary to the hypothesis of a public sphere deficit, the German mass media seem to quite accurately reflect the Europeanization of policy making, at least in those policy fields where a clear-cut transfer of competencies to the supranational EU level has taken place.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.