New Article by Trygve Beyer Broch
How can state politics reconstruct unhealthy, undemocratic and unsound sports as a common good? This study explores the convergence of state and sport politics. Using cultural sociology, I unearth how the Nordic welfare state reconstructs children's sport and embeds it in its broader purview of civil society. Through document-ethnography of white papers from the Ministry of Health and Care Services, Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Childhood and Families…
Reporting on the Third Meeting of the Civil Sphere Theory Working Group
It was the intellectually brilliant, if not tragic, figure of Stefan Zweig who said that “one must be convinced to convince, to have enthusiasm to stimulate the others.” Aside from the fact that he was Austrian, a more pertinent reason for citing Zweig is that his words capture something of how I feel when I recall my experience of the recent CST Working Group conference…
Check Out These Articles by Jakob Egholm Feldt
This article discusses Israel Zangwill's play The Melting Pot (1908) and Horace M. Kallen's essay ‘Democracy versus the Melting Pot’ (1915) as two different visions of future Jewish inclusion. Zangwill's play and Kallen's response reflect social changes at the time, and both visions consider Jewish history exemplary for the world-to-come…
New Article by Jeffrey C. Alexander
The present paper delves into how symbolic boundaries in a school that is undergoing a desegregation process come to shape social boundaries of ‘we-ness’ and ‘otherness’. The theoretical framework of the study starts from an interest in analysing whether symbolic and social boundaries emerge…
Civil Sphere Theory Conference Explores Central and Eastern Europe’s Democratic Challenges
The international conference “The Civil Sphere in Central and Eastern Europe” took place on 30 June–1 July 2025 at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. Co-organized by Nadya Jaworsky (Masaryk University Brno) and Susann Worschech (European University Viadrina), the event gathered scholars from across the world to examine civil, uncivil, and noncivil dynamics in post-socialist societies. The result will be an edited volume entitled Post-Transformation and the Civil Sphere in Central and Eastern Europe, to be published in 2026 by Palgrave MacMillan, with Jeffrey Alexander, Nadya Jaworsky and Susann Worschech as editors…
The Civil Sphere Theory Working Group Meeting 2025 Program is Now Live!
We’re happy to announce that the full program for the Civil Sphere Theory Working Group Meeting 2025 is now available. Explore the panels, speakers, and sessions that await you in Vienna this October.
Special Issue of Philosophy and Society on Jeffrey Alexander’s Civil Sphere Theory
This special issue arose out of a conference hosted at Heidelberg University “The Civil Sphere: Global Perspectives on Culture and Politics,” from October 18-19, 2023. The conference united scholars working in the field of cultural sociology from across the globe, with the shared goal of engaging with and further developing Civil Sphere Theory, considering its global dimensions, in particular…
New Book from Jeffrey Alexander and Suryakant Waghmore
Indian democracy is in trouble. A still widely popular, democratically elected leader stands athwart it, dangerously authoritarian and disrespectful of civil liberties, the independence of the courts and the press, and disputatious vis-à-vis organized counter-powers. Leading intellectuals, Indian and Western, write about the death of Indian democracy and the passage to despotism. Despite these clear and present dangers, this volume suggests that the death of Indian…
New Book from Jeffrey Alexander and Mervyn Horgan
When activists, advocates, victims of injustice, and ordinary citizens seek to advance (or block) social justice and cohesion, they draw on morally charged ideals. But the wellsprings of solidarity and conflict are complex in a society as diverse as Canada…
New Article by Ali Osman, Anna Lund & Stefan Lund
The present paper delves into how symbolic boundaries in a school that is undergoing a desegregation process come to shape social boundaries of ‘we-ness’ and ‘otherness’. The theoretical framework of the study starts from an interest in analysing whether symbolic and social boundaries emerge…