The European Public Sphere in Times of Crisis: Transnational Publics, Mobilisation and Accountability (Joint Panel ARENA - UNU CRIS)

Abstract

Recent contributions to the study of the democratic character of the EU make use, in different guises, of the analytical concept of the public sphere, as the communicative infrastructure with a potential to bridge the widening gap between the elites and the citizens. These studies have pointed to a significant Europeanisation of political communication and the intensification of transnational exchanges among the European citizens. This basic correlation between the public sphere and the emergence of a community of European citizens has been fundamentally challenged by the advent of the debt crisis. In response to crisis, public spheres are re-politicised becoming the space for enhanced public contestation, but not necessarily carrying forward a common political and identitarian project. In this new constellation, we need to explore expressions of public unrest and mobilisations. Do these new politicised dynamics of the public sphere (mostly captured via the media) contribute to the further Europeanisation or to the re-nationalisation of communicative spaces? Do the public dialogues about the debt crisis and the subsequent mobilizations provide answers to the ‘who and how’ of participation in the European public sphere? And if so, in what ways? Do they help - or not - address issues of policy uptake? In addition, from a normative point of view, how can the evolving public sphere dynamics contribute to holding European crisis governance accountable? Overall, the panel seeks to make new inroads into the study of the democratising function of the public sphere and its Europeanising or re-nationalising effects.

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