458
Democratic Institutions, Critique and Alienation
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC36 Alienation Theory and Research (host committee)
Language: French and English
Session Type: Oral
This session examines the articulation between public space and alienation. More precisely, we will address this through a focus on the contrast between the instrumental logic of governance that dominates most official “democratic” politics, and the expressive and subjective logic of public criticisms and protest.
Citizens are experiencing an “erosion crisis” of democratic institutions. The powerful logic of governance leads to a sense of inauthenticity and an experienced “lack of alternatives”. Nonetheless, we can observe public mobilization, criticism and protest, which often crystalize around specific issues, e.g. local infrastructure projects. They lead to the development of critical publics off the beaten tracks of the dominant public space. The deliberation that take places within these spaces offers the potential to turn into counter-publics, in which alternative futures can be imagined. At the same time, democracy threatens itself by putting in place individuals whose discourse affirms their "hatred of democracy" and advocates its collapse. We here investigate how alienation can be a resourceful concept for thinking about these contradictions.
In order to understand the alienating dimension of democratic institutions and the logics of liberation, two dimensions of these movements need to be understood: their subjective meanings and and the institutions of deliberation. At the same time, the self-destructive nature of contemporary democracy, which seems to secrete its own threat, must be examined. In order to understand these democratic contradictions, this session will address this issue both on the basis of theoretical interventions and on the basis of specific field investigations.