Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Applying Sociology to the Construction of a Democratic Public Sphere in Albania

Applying Sociology to the Construction of a Democratic Public Sphere in Albania Applying Sociology to the Construction of a Democratic Public Sphere in Albania Fatos Tarifa Eastern Michigan University Institute of Political and Social Studies, Tirana and Leke Sokoli Institute of Political and Social Studies, Tirana Although it is not our intention to engage in a theoretical Habermasian discourse on the public sphere and civil society, we do subscribe to Jiirgen Habermas’s description of the public sphere. That is, as a series of mediations between civil society and the state and “a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed” (Habermas, 1989: 136). A moderately liberal public sphere has been created in Albania since the fall of Communism in the early 1990s. It has allowed the free exchange of views to construct public opinion and to establish principles of legitimacy by limiting those who hold power. The fkee exchange of views and “public opinion” has been, and remains, related to the needs of the new business people and the intellectuals who seek public forums in which they can discuss business affairs and social matters. A fairly lively press, no longer subject to Communist censorship, also began to develop for the first time after decades of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Applied Sociology SAGE

Applying Sociology to the Construction of a Democratic Public Sphere in Albania

Tarifa, Fatos; Sokoli, Lekë
Journal of Applied Sociology , Volume os-23 (1): 8 – Mar 1, 2006
Download PDF
8 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/sage/applying-sociology-to-the-construction-of-a-democratic-public-sphere-raZ0zKaFEQ
Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2006 Association for Applied Social Science
ISSN
0749-0232
eISSN
1937-0245
DOI
10.1177/19367244062300107
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Applying Sociology to the Construction of a Democratic Public Sphere in Albania Fatos Tarifa Eastern Michigan University Institute of Political and Social Studies, Tirana and Leke Sokoli Institute of Political and Social Studies, Tirana Although it is not our intention to engage in a theoretical Habermasian discourse on the public sphere and civil society, we do subscribe to Jiirgen Habermas’s description of the public sphere. That is, as a series of mediations between civil society and the state and “a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed” (Habermas, 1989: 136). A moderately liberal public sphere has been created in Albania since the fall of Communism in the early 1990s. It has allowed the free exchange of views to construct public opinion and to establish principles of legitimacy by limiting those who hold power. The fkee exchange of views and “public opinion” has been, and remains, related to the needs of the new business people and the intellectuals who seek public forums in which they can discuss business affairs and social matters. A fairly lively press, no longer subject to Communist censorship, also began to develop for the first time after decades of

Journal

Journal of Applied Sociology – SAGE

Published: Mar 1, 2006

There are no references for this article.