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- Title
Civil Sphere and Transitions to Peace: Cultural Trauma and Civil Repair.
- Authors
Alexander, Jeffrey C.
- Abstract
What are the conditions for establishing solidarity after a period of intensive and divisive social conflict—what Kant called a cosmopolitan constitution? In this essay, I argue that such a widened solidarity depends on establishing a relatively independent civil sphere, the effective functioning of whose institutions depend, in turn, on a shared sacred discourse of civility. To speak such a shared language, however, requires much more than engaging in speech acts. It depends upon a deeply emotional and highly symbolic process, one in which public performances of reconciliation create new structures of feeling and identification. This theoretical argument is elaborated empirically with reference to post-Holocaust Germany, post-Franco Spain, and post-Apartheid South Africa.
- Subjects
SOUTH Africa; KANT, Immanuel, 1724-1804; RECONCILIATION; SOCIAL conflict; SPHERES; PEACE; COURTESY
- Publication
International Journal of Politics, Culture & Society, 2022, Vol 35, Issue 1, p85
- ISSN
0891-4486
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10767-020-09371-7