Civil Sphere and Populism Conference

On June 14 and 15, 2019 Jeffrey Alexander, along with co-organizers Giuseppe Sciortino, Trento University and Peter Kivisto, Augustana College, hosted the Civil Sphere and Populism Conference in New Haven - the fifth in a series of conference-book projects to globalize civil sphere theory (CST).

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The resurgence of authoritarian, extremist social, cultural, and political movements poses the greatest challenge to democracy since the 1930s. We believe this extraordinarily dangerous development can and should be conceptualized in terms of civil sphere theory, in terms of the strains and challenges that face real existing civil spheres. Not only will doing so freshly illuminate left and right populism but it will advance and elaborate the research program that has been developing around civil sphere theory.

Generously supported by: The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund and the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, International Migration Laboratory of the universita degli studi di Trento, and the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.