Respondents as Interlocutors: Translating Deliberative Democratic Principles to Qualitative Interviewing Ethics

The epistemic interview is a conversational practice, which aims to generate knowledge by subjecting respondents’ beliefs to dialectical tests of reasons. Developed by Svend Brinkmann, this model draws inspiration from Socratic dialogues where the interviewer asks confronting questions to press respondents to articulate the normative bases of their views. In this article, the author argues that Brinkmann’s model is a valuable methodological innovation but warrants further development. The author suggests that the epistemic interview can be put on a stronger methodological footing when the Socratic model is complemented by developments in democratic theory, particularly its deliberative variety. Translating deliberative democratic virtues to methodological terms addresses some of the epistemic model’s gaps, including an account of the dynamic of knowledge production and the ethical norms that govern this method. To illustrate the practice of epistemic interviewing, the author draws on her experience in interviewing junior military officer

‘We haven’t even buried the dead yet’:Ethics of discursive contestation in a crisis situation

Disasters are often described as exceptional moments that demand global solidarity. A ‘state of humanitarian exception’ emerges as citizens foreground norms of compassion and cooperation while contestatory discourse – the argumentative, blame-seeking and fault-finding forms of speech – are stigmatized as inappropriate interventions in a society seeking to recover from a distressful crisis situation. This article critically unpacks these representations of post-disaster situations empirically and normatively. By analysing the discussions in the public sphere over the first 100 days after Typhoon Haiyan battered Central Philippines, the article examines the moral force behind the ‘discourse of compassion’ and its ‘ethical boundary work’ that places the ‘discourse of contestation’ outside the scope of acceptable conduct. It proposes that the discourse of compassion’s ethical boundary work is only democratically acceptable when one takes a short view of a crisis situation. Drawing on deliberative democracy theory, the article argues for the importance of contestatory discourse in fostering inclusive discourse formation and ensuring that the state of humanitarian exception does not become the rule.</jats:p

Politics of Anxiety, Politics of Hope: Penal Populism and Duterte’s Rise to Power

Citizens who support populist leaders are often portrayed in negative terms. They are disparaged for their prejudice and naiveté, some even earning the label “basket of deplorables” from Hillary Clinton. Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters were not exempted from such criticism. In the 2016 Philippine presidential race, they were pejoratively labelled Dutertards, which pathologised their fervent and unrelenting support for the controversial candidate. This article interrogates such depictions by examining the logics that underpin Duterte’s strong public support. I argue that part of Duterte’s appeal hinges on “penal populism,” built on two political logics that reinforce each other: the politics of anxiety and the politics of hope. While the former foregrounds the language of crisis, danger and uncertainty, the latter reclaims democratic agency. The article examines the articulations of these logics among Duterte’s supporters based on ethnographic fieldwork in disaster-affected communities where Duterte enjoyed decisive victories

CARLO GALLI: Political Spaces and War

http://dx.doi.org/10.13185/ST2013.0110

Commentary on Cristina Lafont, Democracy Without Shortcuts

In this article, Jürgen Habermas provides a critical reflection of Cristina Lafont´s book Democracy Without Shortcuts, with a specific eye on the epistemic and social-integrative dimensions in deliberative democracy