ABSTRACT
Having examined in the previous chapter conceptions of subjectivity, identity and agency that have been influential for theories of radical democracy, this chapter digs more deeply into the radicalizing of conceptions of the democratic community and the public sphere, as well as the kinds of relations and interactions deemed appropriate within them (some of these issues will also be addressed in Chapter Five). As with the previous chapter, Chapter Four begins by outlining conventional liberal understandings of the democratic community and public sphere, but then turns to examine the radicalizing of both conceptions carried out by communitarian, deliberative, cosmopolitan and post-foundational thinkers. Building further on insights set out in the previous chapter regarding the significance of coalition politics, this chapter will examine a) communitarian and deliberative attempts to re-invigorate public and political spheres in response to perceived disengagement from the democratic political process by citizens; b) cosmopolitan revisionings of solidarity and democratic community with an eye to managing the challenges of globalization; c) the democratizing work of progressive social movements emerging in both offline and online domains (issues to also be discussed in the following chapter); and d) post-foundational revisionings of both liberal and deliberative conceptions of the public sphere, solidarity and community (some of which have been briefly introduced in Chapter Three). Although not all of these developments with regard to the conception of democratic community can be clearly collected under the umbrella of radical democracy, they do variously inform the ideas of community put forward by radical democratic thinkers. These discussions culminate in my delineation of the principles and practices arguably informing and comprising a radical democratic community. The aim of this chapter, then, is to gain further insight into the various radicalizings of theory and practice driving conceptions of radical democratic community.
