The civil sphere Theory
Working group
News
The book addresses the structures of the meaning of politics in Mexico in recent decades. It studies how the symbolic codes of populism, patrimonialism, and democracy...
The editorial team of the journal Philosophy and Society is pleased to announce a call for papers for the 2025 Special Issue, dedicated to the topic “Resilience and/or vulnerability of the civil sphere.”
The conference titled "The Civil Sphere and Authoritarian Trends in Democracies" was held as part of the 2023-2024 cycle "Past and Present of Authoritarianism in Latin America," coordinated by Dr. Nelson Arteaga Botello at FLACSO Mexico…
We develop an account of societal democratization that synthesizes cultural sociology and deliberative democracy. Cultural sociologists emphasize the symbolic inclusion of marginalized groups into the civil sphere. Deliberative democrats stress growth in the deliberative capacity of society…
A recent conference at Yale University addressed these crucial issues through the lenses of two prominent cultural theories: Civil Sphere Theory (CST) and Civic Action Theory (CAT). These theories, while distinct, both aim to understand and promote democratic engagement and civil solidarity…
The past three and a half decades have witnessed not only transition and tremendous social change in former socialist and communist countries and their civil spheres, but also the emergence of new political dynamics and societal arrangements in a transformation and post- transformation context…
The article illuminates the emotional reaction of a stage-audience encounter between migrant/non-white youth and a white audience born in Sweden while meeting and interacting with content, including the staging of identities, belonging, and experiences of being “other”.
The editorial team of the journal Philosophy and Society is pleased to announce a call for papers for the 2025 Special Issue, dedicated to the topic “Resilience and/or vulnerability of the civil sphere.”
The first Management Committee (MC) meeting of the COST Action CA22165, titled "Redressing Radical Polarisation: Strengthening European Civil Spheres facing Illiberal Digital Media (DepolarisingEU)," was held on November 6, 2023, at the COST premises in Brussels. The meeting aimed to familiarize MC members with COST, establish a common understanding of the Action's challenges and objectives, elect mandatory leadership positions, and discuss the proposal for the Work and Budget Plan…
Work-life pressures on the modern woman shape hair fashions and customs. The ponytail binds hair in practical ways that can echo feminist undercurrents, implying “I’m busy, I’m working, and need my hair OFF my face.” Furthermore, this chapter shows how the ponytail naturalizes women’s presence in male-dominated jobs and roles, and therefore radiates with the social progress of former feminist generations…
This article introduces a theory of societalized politics to investigate crisis events in the German civil sphere between 2015 and 2024, and to proffer an answer to the disputed question of the preconditions that facilitated the rapid rise of right-wing populism in the German context. Drawing on civil sphere and societalization theory, the article specifies the foundational cultural elements, or binary cultural codes (BCCs)...