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Political Reflections on Antarctica – Workshop Description
The 2012 Annual Symposium of The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) Tuesday, 20 November 2012, Canberra Workshop Description Background: Social science perspectives on Antarctica are limited in scope and quantity. In the fields of political science, international relations, legal studies and public policy, there is ample literature on subjects such as governance [...]
Refolution in the Arab world
Great revolutionary convulsions typically trigger long-lasting reflections on their causes and consequences. The European tradition of political thinking harbours many well-known examples, including Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Harold Laski’s Reflections on the Revolution of Our Times (1943) and Ralf Dahrendorf’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (1990). There are not [...]
A Productive Challenge: Unelected Representatives Can Enrich Democracy
During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, in various parts of the Atlantic region, the meaning of citizenship was profoundly transformed by the advent of representative democracy. Central to its definition and functioning was the principle that citizens in a democratic state are entitled periodically to elect candidates to representative assemblies and executive offices [...]
Über die Einbettung des Marktes in die globale Zivilgesellschaft
Translated by Philipp Schwertmann for the 2004 Yearbook of the University of Goettingen “Wirtschaft und Zivilgesellschaft” • Zivilgesellschaftlicher Purismus Welche Kräfte treiben heute die Globalisierung der Zivilgesellschaft voran? Viele Aktivisten und einige ihrer intellektuellen Unterstützer lassen keine Zweifel an der richtigen Antwort: Die globale Zivilgesellschaft beweist die Macht autonomer moralischer Wahlmöglichkeit und moralischen Handelns. Sie [...]
Eleven Theses on Markets and Civil Society
1. The Centrality of Markets During the modernization of the concept of civil society that took place in the Atlantic region between the years 1776 and 1848, every commentator on commodity production and exchange thought of markets as an organizing principle of civil society. Some praised, some criticised, some remained ambivalent about markets and their [...]
Democracy in the Age of Google, Facebook and WikiLeaks
In the beginning there was the grand spectacle of a worldwide satellite television broadcast, featuring Maria Callas, Pablo Picasso and the Beatles. Then came fax machines, photocopiers, video recorders and personal computers. Now there are electronic books, scanners and smart phones converted into satellite navigators and musical instruments; cloud computing, interactive video technology and speak-to-tweets, [...]
Global Civil Society?
From Helmut Anheier, Marlies Glasius, and Mary Kaldor (eds.), Global Civil Society 2001, Oxford University Press. Chapter 2, pp. 23-47 This chapter is available for download in PDF format To read more about John Keane’s Global Civil Society (2002), including translations and chapter samplers please click here.
Civil Society: Monitory Democracy and Media in John Keane
An English synopsis of the PhD by Ramón Feenstra University Jaume I of Castellon (Spain) January 2010 INTRODUCTION There are essentially two basic reasons for the preeminent position that reflection on civil society has acquired among theorists of democracy today. The first of these is directly linked to the problems and crises experienced by different [...]
Otra tesis acerca de la filosofia de la historia
This essay in Spanish appeared in the Revista Encuentros Uruguayos Año II, Número 2, Noviembre 2009, pp. 208-220 In English the text was published in James Tully (ed.), 1988, Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and His Critics, Princeton University Press. Chapter 12, pp. 204-17 Revista Encuentros Uruguayos Año II, Número 2, Noviembre 2009 Otras tesis [...]
Civil Society, Definitions and Approaches
Entry in the Encyclopedia of Civil Society, Books Springer Click here to read excerpt in PDF format