Summer Institute der Association for Cultural Studies

The Long Revolution and the Future of Publics

The forth­co­m­ing Sum­mer In­sti­tu­te will dis­cuss the op­por­tu­nities and chal­len­ges to the idea of “pu­blics” brought forth by new com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and media tech­no­lo­gies.

It builds on Ray­mond Wil­li­ams’ idea of a “long re­vo­lu­ti­on” of cul­tu­re in the cour­se of eco­no­mic and po­li­ti­cal chan­ges and ex­pands it to the di­gi­ta­liza­t­i­on of “pu­blic sphe­res”, in which these in­ter­ac­tions be­co­me vi­si­ble. Using on­line re­sour­ces, such as so­ci­al net­work sites, ci­ti­zens can par­ti­ci­pa­te in pu­blic dis­cour­se and make their voices heard on po­li­ti­cal is­su­es, thus ma­king the pu­blic sphe­re more di­ver­se. Ea­si­ly ac­ces­si­ble media tech­no­lo­gies, such as web­logs and pod­casts, enable and em­power their users to pro­du­ce media con­tent, which might sub­vert he­ge­mo­nic ideas and chal­len­ge asym­metri­cal power re­la­ti­ons.

Ne­ver­the­l­ess, chan­ges in com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on tech­no­lo­gies also bear chal­len­ges to pu­blic sphe­res: For ex­amp­le, in the cour­se of the frag­men­ta­ti­on of the pu­blic sphe­re and the seg­men­ta­ti­on of its au­di­en­ces, the prac­tices and norms of pu­blic com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on be­co­me par­ti­cu­la­ris­tic as well.
On­line, es­pe­cial­ly through so­ci­al net­work sites, non-de­mo­cra­tic ideo­lo­gies equal­ly get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to reach a wider au­di­ence through ma­le­vo­lent ha­ckers or au­to­ma­ted bots. Ques­ti­ons of pu­blic con­trol and media re­gu­la­ti­on arise, as hate speech and fake news be­co­me part of the di­gi­tal ver­na­cu­lar lan­gua­ge.
Program.