WP 5 analyses how civil society and the public sphere shape the democratic reconstitution of Europe. Adopting a cross-national and cross-sectoral comparative perspective, it explores the conditions and dynamics of democratisation from below: the scope of media communication and public debates and the formation and mobilisation of citizens’ support and resistance to European governance. The guiding question is whether democratic practice is conducive to a particular kind of polity. Alternative scenarios for democratisation are derived from RECON’s three theoretical models:
Are civil society and the public sphere constrained to the preservation or reconstitution of national democracies?
Do they take part in the construction of a federal polity through the emergence of representative structures and multi-level public spheres?
Do they promote a novel, post-national and deliberative democracy embedded in global civil society and world discourses of justification?
Research from the project is published in academic journals and books, as well as in RECON’s publication series (reports and online working papers). A complete list of publications and presentations from WP 5 is available for each year of the project.
This research group organises a number of workshops and conferences, as well as panels at international conferences. Complete list of WP 5 events.
