POL 507 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: E-Democracy, Arab Spring, Public Sphere

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Politics and Public Administration
• Course: POL 507
• Professor: Robert Marshall

Document Summary

The work of the social theorist jurgen habermas (1929-) has been very influential on thinking about forms of e-democracy and e-participation. Amongst the many contributions, habermas has made to social theory, perhaps his most sig(cid:374)ifi(cid:272)a(cid:374)t has (cid:271)ee(cid:374) his (cid:449)ork o(cid:374) the (cid:862)pu(cid:271)li(cid:272) sphere(cid:863: public sphere: where people meet to discuss political events, mobilize what governments/monarchies are doing. I(cid:374) politi(cid:272)al theory/philosophy, the idea of the (cid:862)pu(cid:271)li(cid:272) sphere(cid:863) has (cid:271)ee(cid:374) tra(cid:272)ed (cid:271)a(cid:272)k to the period of the enlightenment. This idea looks at the issue of the spaces in which citizens mobilize and engage in political actions. What has come to be called the arab spring arose in parts of the middle east and northern. While some have seen as (cid:862)spo(cid:374)ta(cid:374)eously" arisi(cid:374)g the reality is that they arose fro(cid:373) the depth of oppression, unemployment, sexism, mockery of democracy and justice, and police brutality. There has been serious debate and discussion over the role of social media during the protests.