A crisis of public criticism. The actualization of center-periphery semantics in the European Union / Kryzys publicznej krytyki. Urzeczywistnianie semantyki „centrum-peryferie” w Unii Europejskiej
Journal Title: Przegląd Socjologiczny - Year 2016, Vol 0, Issue 4
Abstract
The paper approaches the current condition of the European Union as a crisis of public criticism from a theoretical perspective. This crisis consists of the clash between current peripheralist criticisms coming from national governments, opposition parties and quasi-social movements and often combining with exclusivist demands, and the EU’s insistence on a continuation of its rationalist and modernist political project. The nature of this European project can be more closely analyzed if viewed as a political correlate to Jürgen Habermas’ model of rational public political deliberation. This analysis is then confronted with an alternative view on public criticism as found in postcolonial theory. In particular, this discussion engages Gayatri Spivak’s critique of peripheralist representations that deem themselves critical. On the basis of the theoretical juxtaposition between Habermas and Spivak, this paper distills a regulative idea for public political criticism that differs from Habermas’ conception of communicative rationality – namely, the regulative idea of self-criticism. Self-criticism is conceptualized as a way to account for potentially problematic aspects that may accompany peripheralist criticisms, to understanding them as an expression of the metropolitan political public dynamic, and thus to assume responsibility for them. For the current crisis constellation, this would mean rephrasing peripheralist criticisms as part and parcel of a genuinely European public political dynamic, thus overcoming the chasm created by the reciprocal consolidation of peripheralist and centralist positions.
Authors and Affiliations
Andreas Langenohl
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP198391
- DOI -
- Views 64
- Downloads 0
O tym, jak napisać biografię naukową (łódzka szkoła metodologiczna)
This paper discusses two related issues. Firstly, the attributes of the Lodz methodological school are presented, which confirm that the group of cooperating scientists who gathered around Zygmunt Gostkowski and Jan Luty...
Krystyna Lutyńska – Wspomnienie
-
Underprivileged children in the social space of impunity: The example of the children’s residential care system in the Polish People’s Republic / Dzieci ze środowisk defaworyzowanych w społecznej przestrzeni bezkarności: Na przykładzie systemu opieki całkowitej w Polskiej Rzeczpospolitej Ludowej
This paper treats the social conditionings of institutional violence. First the very notion of the impunity, which creates the theoretical foundation of the consideration, is briefly discussed, followed by treatment of t...
Awans społeczny kobiet w czasach PRL. Dynamika struktury i sprawczości
This article describes the experience of upward social mobility of women in the Polish People’s Republic, in the context of specificity of professional trajectories in communist Poland. The basis for analysis is biograph...
Kapitalizm a kwestia miejska / Capitalism and the urban question
In the transformation of Polish cities in the last quarter of a century, ground rent has played an important role, and developers have emerged as one of the most important actors in the production of space. As a result,...