New Article by Johan Gøtzsche-Astrup and Oluf Gøtzsche-Astrup
We are happy to announce a new article commentary, “Dreaming of peace amidst thenightmare of war: Responding to my interlocutors” by Johan Gøtzsche-Astrup and Oluf Gøtzsche-Astrup in The British Journal of Sociology.
“Are members of the public still committed to democracy? Existing studies often ask whether members of the public sanction political actors who break institutional or procedural norms. In contrast, we study a shared cultural horizon, which grounds democracy as a way of living. Drawing on Civil Sphere Theory and the sociology of culture and cognition, we conceptualise the horizon as a binary discourse, which can be internalised as a cultural schema by individuals. Through a concept association task administered to a representative sample of the US public, we uncover a widely internalised democratic schema, which is shared across partisan divides and predicts evaluations of political actors. We temper fears of democratic decline, at least at the level of a shared cultural horizon in the United States, provide an individual-level perspective on Civil Sphere Theory, and bridge two sometimes conflicting traditions in cultural sociology.”
Johan Gøtzsche-Astrup and Oluf Gøtzsche-Astrup
The British Journal of Sociology (BJS) is a leading international sociology journal published on behalf of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Established in 1950, it publishes rigorous and original research addressing a broad sociological audience and welcomes a wide range of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The journal aims to advance sociological theory, methodology, and empirical research while contributing to debates on major contemporary social, political, and democratic issues. Its international scope encompasses the full range of sociological research, with particular attention to emerging areas of scholarship, methodological innovation, and contributions from scholars and regions that are developing their presence within the discipline.
Alongside original research articles, BJS publishes book reviews, review essays, book symposia, special sections, and thematic special issues responding to important scholarly and societal developments. The journal seeks to foster engagement across the international sociological community while supporting early-career and emerging scholars. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are also central to its publishing approach: BJS actively encourages research representing the diversity of society, seeks greater representation of historically underrepresented groups in academic publishing, and encourages authors to engage with and cite scholarship produced by researchers from diverse backgrounds.
Gøtzsche-Astrup, Johan, and Oluf Gøtzsche-Astrup. 2026. “ Democracy From Within: A Democratic Cultural Schema in the US Public,” The British Journal of Sociology: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.70148.
