Description
Book Synopsis* A brilliant and provocative piece of critical theory. * Outlines an original approach to the influential concept of the public sphere. * Takes a transnational perspective, which is at the cutting edge of debates. * Includes case studies on the BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera. .
Trade Review"Ingrid Volkmer is not looking at the future in terms of a projection from the past, but in terms of 'what is to come'. This shift of perspective makes a tremendous difference. Reading her book becomes a fascinating eye-opening experience because we then “see” how the still dominant assumptions about nation-state organized publics, mass-media consumption, and so on, are blinding us to the new emerging personal networked realities that link individuals across world regions in 'lived' global public spaces."
Ulrich Beck, University of Munich "Where now do we think, reflect and deliberate? Can the complexities of today’s political reflexivities be contained within the borders of national territory? In this exhilarating and diversely grounded book, Ingrid Volkmer compels us to develop new and conceptually challenging answers to these questions. It is a landmark work of scholarship for the age of communicative globalization."
Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science "Few concepts have been as central to understanding the interrelationship among individuals, civil society and the state as Habermas’s 'public sphere'. And few scholars have addressed the need to rethink this concept in light of globalization and the spread of digital communication with the sophistication demonstrated by Ingrid Volkmer in
The Global Public Sphere."
Michael X. Delli Carpini, Annenberg School for Communication, University of PennsylvaniaTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vi
Illustrations vii
Introduction 1
1 Public Territories and the Imagining of Political Community 11
2 Post-Territoriality in Spheres of ‘Public Assemblages’ 53
3 From ‘Reflexive’ Modernity to ‘Reflective’ Globalization:
The Public Space of ‘Inbetween-Ness’ 91
4 Public Interdependence, Interlocutors and the ‘Matrix’ of
Influence 129
5 From the Public Sphere to Public ‘Horizons’ 163
Notes 192
References 195
Index 215
