Multifaceted European Public Sphere: Socio-Cultural Dynamics

This paper seeks to describe, critically highlight and interdisciplinarily discuss the current status and the nonlinear sociocultural dynamics of the increasingly mediated and multifaceted European public sphere, drawing on three overlapping areas of theoretical interest: internet and web studies, economic globalisation, and the political sociology of emotions. On the one hand, internet and web studies help us to better understand the disputed character of digital politics and, especially, the “radically ambivalent” reconstruction process of the contemporary European public sphere. On the other hand, the analytical need to elaborate on the structural factors of the antinomic fluidity of this sphere leads us to the complex link between globalised and globalising financial capitalism with what is called “homo dictyous”, as well as to the political sociology of emotions, emphasising on the informalisation of manners. The paper ends with a plea for political emotional reflexivity, which calls forth the urgent substantive need to revitalise late modern democracy with the practical cultivation of positive emotionality (containment, compassion, solidarity, empathy) and the nurturing of global liberal virtues, such as pluralism, tolerance, and moderation.