Thomas Olesen

Christina Fiig

Jorn Loftager

Jan Lohmann Stephensen

Henrik Nielsen

Mads Sorensen

Even in well-established democratic societies, the political system currently faces a crisis of civic engagement and participation. Increasingly, this lack of engagement and the accompanying erosion of institutional legitimacy result in antidemocratic, populist currents gaining ground. It is an important challenge for both the humanities and the social sciences to analyse this crisis and discuss possible answers that may contribute to strengthening the position of the democratic public sphere in the political process, thus emphasising the crucial role of civic engagement and participation in renewing democracy. The articles in this volume seek the sources for such democratic innovations in a variety of existing, less formalised practices and experiences in public space: in citizens' forums and other concrete arenas for democratic debate and participation in the media in general, including social media and other digital platforms; in social movements; and in artistic interventions in the public sphere. The volume presents selected and edited papers and keynote lectures from the international research conference The Democratic Public Sphere - Current Challenges and Prospects, which was held at Aarhus University on November 5-7, 2015. It includes contributions by keynote speakers Mark E. Warren, Nick Couldry, Donatella della Porta, and Stephen Duncombe.

Current Challenges and Prospects

The Democratic Public Sphere

Aarhus Universitet. Institut for Statskundskab

Civil Society and Networks in the EZLN Uprising

The Mexican Laboratory

This book focuses on global activism and uses a power perspective to provide an in-depth and coherent analysis of both the possibilities and limitations of global activism. Bringing together scholars from IR, sociology, and political science, this book offers new and critical insights on global activism and power. It features case studies on the following social and political issues: China and Tibet, HIV/AIDS, climate change, child labour, the WTO, women and the UN, the global public sphere, regional integration, national power, world social forums, policing, media power and global civil society. It will be of interest to students and scholars of globalization, global sociology and international politics.

Power and Transnational Activism

Offering new and critical insights on global activism and power, it features case studies on China and Tibet, HIV/AIDS, climate change, child labour, the WTO, women and the UN, the global public sphere, world social forums and global civil society.

The Zapatista movement and its leader Subcomandante Marcos have attracted enormous political and scholarly attention ever since their uprising began in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1994. The movement not only struck a chord inside the country as Mexico was switching to neoliberal economics and attaching itself to the USA in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but it rapidly evoked an extraordinary up-welling of political interest and solidarity in the Americas and worldwide. Thomas Olesen explores this phenomenon in the context of globalization and the networking and communications potential of the Internet. What is the infrastructure of the global Zapatista solidarity network? What activities has it engaged in? What enabled it to develop? What are the longer term implications for new kinds of political action and international solidarity? And what can social theory tell us about the new global patterns of social interaction that are emerging?

Thomas Olesen

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