Publics in History

Seeks to encourage sociological analysis to distinguish between associational civil society and economic and political institutions, and so open up new ways of analyzing the complex and reciprocal determinations that obtain among associational life, the modern administrative-bureaucratic state, and the capitalist economy. Explores the different categories of networks of publicity rooted within civil society, and 3 distinct interfaces of publicity. Considers the internal differentiation of publics along 2 dimensions, and seeks to convert this 2-fold model of institutional spheres and extra-institutional networks of publicity into a systematic program for empirical research. [Note: an incorrect version of this paper was originally published in Volume 27/6].