LEADER 02934nam 22004452 450 001 9910794144403321 005 20201014162721.0 010 $a1-77614-590-9 035 $a(CKB)4100000011135810 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC6183755 035 $a(UkCbUP)CR9781776145904 035 $a(OCoLC)1152158831 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)musev2_89741 035 $a(EXLCZ)994100000011135810 100 $a20200819d2020|||| uy| 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 00$aBabel unbound $erage, reason and rethinking public life /$fedited by Lesley Cowling and Carolyn Hamilton$b[electronic resource] 210 1$aJohannesburg :$cWits University Press,$d2020. 215 $a1 online resource (283 pages) $cdigital, PDF file(s) 300 $aTitle from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 21 Sep 2020). 311 $a1-77614-589-5 330 $aThe notion that societies mediate issues through certain kinds of engagement is at the heart of the democratic project and often centres on an imagined public sphere where this takes place. But this imagined foundation of how we live collectively appears to have suffered a dramatic collapse across the world in the digital age, with many democracies apparently unable to solve problems through talk - or even to agree on who speaks, in what ways and where. In this timely and erudite collection, writers from southern Africa combine theoretical analysis with the examination of historical cases and contemporary events to demonstrate that forms of publicness are multiple, mobile and varied. Drawing primarily on insights and materials from Africa for their capacity to speak to global developments, the authors in this volume propose new concepts and methodologies to analyse how public engagements work in society. The contributions examine charged examples from the Global South, such as the centuries old Timbuktu archive, Nelson Mandela's powerful absent presence in 1960s public life, and the contemporary debates around the 2015/2016 student activism of #rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall. These cases show how issues of public discussion circulate in unpredictable ways.Babel Unbound will be of interest to anyone looking to find alternative ways of thinking about publicness in contemporary society in order to make better sense of the cacophony of conversations in circulation. 606 $aPolitical participation$zAfrica 606 $aMass media$xPolitical aspects$zAfrica 607 $aAfrica$xPolitics and government$y21st century 615 0$aPolitical participation 615 0$aMass media$xPolitical aspects 676 $a320.96 702 $aCowling$b Lesley 702 $aHamilton$b Carolyn 801 0$bUkCbUP 801 1$bUkCbUP 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910794144403321 996 $aBabel unbound$93755819 997 $aUNINA