Project Description

E-Publics, led by Network member Danielle Allen, researched the Internet's positive and negative impacts on the new public sphere and produced an edited volume - From Voice to Influence. The Project's premise was that the decline in civic engagement seen in the US was better understood as the passing of one model of public sphere and the emergence of a new model. The old public sphere was “localized,” grounded in local relations, particularly economic ones, while the new public sphere was de-localized. This new de-localized sphere emerged pre-Internet, but was further shaped and organized by online networks made possible by the Internet.  From Voice to Influence brought together scholars from across disciplines to explore the question of the meaning of the public sphere(s) in the new media age.