Politics in Transformation
Alison Gerber
Domestic Civility: Locating Private Political Action
This paper proposes a framework for the separation of the public/private dichotomy from civil action and democratic ideals. I argue that theoretical assumptions about public space, and especially public sphere theories, obscure the lived nature of the public/private dichotomy and makes the analysis of private civil action and public noncivil activities difficult. I argue that to pull civil activity away from assumptions of publicness makes possible a more thorough mapping of political activity, and in particular makes possible the analysis of private civil action.
Pieter Kos
The New Asian Hemisphere Revised
According to Kishore Mahbubani, author of the bestseller ‘The new Asian hemisphere’, the world is changing. The economic and political power will shift to the East and the West is not reacting well. At first sight, both of his points are plausible and it’s tempting to follow his thinking. But, when we take a closer look, his arguments are far less convincing.
Xiaohong Xu
The Culture of the Political: Toward a Cultural Sociology of State Formation
In this essay, we review the existing theorization of cultural dynamics of state formation in sociological lineages in general and in different strains of cultural sociology in particular. After examining their potentials and problematics, we outline four possible objects of analysis on which a cultural sociology of state formation may bear fruits in the future: (1) state boundaries, (2) state idea, (3) state rituals, (4) state classification.
Commentator: Prof. Julia Adams
