Counterpublics as ‘Interconnectors’ of a Deliberative System

In this paper, I explore the potential of counterpublics in connecting civil society discourses with the formal decision-making cycles. In particular, I focus on the conditions under which counterpublics can assume an ‘interconnector’ role, and transmit discourses from one venue to another. I argue that the success of counterpublics in performing such role depends not only on the presence of institutional communication channels between informal and formal public spheres, but also on the prevailing discursive legacies, and established notions of what makes sense on the issue at stake, at a particular time in a given society. I illustrate these claims through a close analysis of the role feminist counterpublics have played in recent years in Britain in the context of a deliberative system that has emerged around the issue of gendered cultured practices such as forced marriages and ‘honour killings’.