Tensions Within the Public Intellectual: Political Interventions from Dreyfus to the New Social Media |
| |
Authors: | Patrick Baert Josh Booth |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RQ, UK
|
| |
Abstract: | Drawing loosely on positioning theory, this article proposes two new claims about intellectuals and their public engagement. Firstly, we argue that the modern notion of the intellectual incorporates four core tensions or contradictions. Those four tensions centre round the following axes: hierarchy versus equality, generality versus expertise, passion versus distance, and the individual versus the collective. We show how these four tensions were present at the outset of the modern notion of the intellectual, and have regularly come to the surface in the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. Secondly, we contend that the same four tensions have taken on new forms, potentially affecting how intellectuals engage with the public. To develop this point, we focus on recent technological developments that enable novel intellectual interventions in the public sphere, in particular interactive online blogging and micro-blogging platforms. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|