Introduction: The Public Sphere in Change. Institutional Perspectives on Neo-corporatist Society

Abstract

The last two decades have seen far-reaching structural transformations in the public sphere. Few topics have attracted more attention, wild guesses, and misinterpretation, than the prospective effects of ongoing changes in information and communication technology. What even the close future will look like, is highly uncertain. Technology, however, is but one element in the broader social processes of change. Its effects on the public sphere emerge in interaction with cultural and institutional patterns, and thereby citizens’ social and political participation. In order to study these transformations three strands of research are brought together in this volume: research on the public sphere, research on institutional change, and research on the Nordic model.