For several decades, sociologists have been re-energizing inquiry into the conditions for social self-organization and solidarity. This question speaks both to the founding concerns of sociology and pressing contemporary concerns about the future of inclusive, equitable, and sustainable democracies around the world. Two cultural approaches share this passionate world of intellectual inquiry. One is Civil Sphere Theory (CST), the other is Civic Action Theory (CAT). While each has been plying its own research program, they share broadly similar normative horizons. CST examines the discursive and institutional structures that orient a democracy from a more macro-societal standpoint. CAT examines styles of coordinating action that actors engage to solve social problems – a core component of democracy – from the standpoint of interaction.
What if our research and theory encompassed both the “big” discursive-institutional structures and the meaningful patterns of civic interaction?
We are organizing our project to explore just this possibility. We are convinced that each line of work offers irreducible insights. Combining them promises a fuller picture of the cultural and institutional conditions for civic engagement and civil solidarity. We need that picture at a time when even the very aspiration to inclusive, democratic self-organization and governance is imperiled.
Participants:
Jeffrey Alexander ~ Yale University
Paul Lichterman ~ University of Southern California
Anna Lund ~ Stockholm University, Sweden
Mervyn Horgan ~ University of Guelph, Canada
Eeva Luhtakallio ~ University of Helsinki, Finland
Saara Liinamaa ~ University of Guelph, Canada
Valentina Cantori ~ University of Southern California
Liv Egholm ~ Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Zachary Hyde ~ University of Toronto, Canada
Richard Wood ~ University of New Mexico
Nina Eliasoph ~ University of Southern California
Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky ~ Masaryk University, Czechia
Olga Zhmurko ~ Masaryk University, Czechia
Lynette Spillman ~ University of Notre Dame