Civil society and the public sphere

Work package 5

WP Leaders	Ulrike Liebert, University of Bremen
	Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo

 

WP 5 analyses how civil society and the public sphere shape the democratic reconstitution of Europe. Adopting a cross-national and cross-sectoral comparative perspective, it explores the conditions and dynamics of democratisation from below: the scope of media communication and public debates and the formation and mobilisation of citizens’ support and resistance to European governance. The guiding question is whether democratic practice is conducive to a particular kind of polity. Alternative scenarios for democratisation are derived from RECON’s three theoretical models:

• Are civil society and the public sphere constrained to the preservation or reconstitution of national democracies?
• Do they take part in the construction of a federal polity through the emergence of representative structures and multi-level public spheres?
• Do they promote a novel, post-national and deliberative democracy embedded in global civil society and world discourses of justification?

More details on the research objectives of WP 5.

Online Euroscepticism A project within the framework of WP 5 focuses on Euroscepticism as advanced in public discourse, particularly on the internet. WP 5 partners have taken stock of the scholarly literature on Euroscepticism, and common themes, actors and forums for Eurosceptic discursive practices have been identified. A particular focus has been on the campaign surrounding the European Parliament elections of June 2009. Read more about the project on online Euroscepticism.

RECON research in Polish media The RECON team at the Jagiellonian University Krakow (JUK) has recently experienced a great interest for their research on the changing identity of the so called ‘new urban middle class' in Poland. Read more

WP 5 events

Publications and activities

Links

RECON participants WP 5:

ARENA, University of Oslo
Hans-Jörg Trenz (co-leader WP 5), John Erik Fossum, Pieter de Wilde
Brit Helle Aarskog (University of Bergen)

Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies, Madrid
Carlos Closa

Eötvös Lórand University Budapest
Maria Heller, Agnes Rényi, Dénes Némedi, Mária Adamik, Róbert Angelusz, Anna Wessely, Péter Bodor, Nora Schleicher, Borbala Kriza, Akos Huszár 

Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Zdenka Mansfeldová, Petra Rakusanová 

Jagiellonian University Krakow
Zdzislaw Mach, Grzegorz Pozarlik, Jacek Nowak, Jacek Kolodziej

Université Libre de Bruxelles
Justine Lacroix, François Forêt

University of Bremen
Ulrike Liebert (co-leader WP 5), Alexander Gattig, Sönke Maatsch, Aleksandra Wyrozumska