3️⃣➡️ This has normative implications for conceptualizations of #polarization, #counterpublics, and so-called “echo chambers” surrounding #climatechange and #activism debates—and shows why multi-platform research is overdue:
February 2, 2026 at 3:16 PM
3️⃣➡️ This has normative implications for conceptualizations of #polarization, #counterpublics, and so-called “echo chambers” surrounding #climatechange and #activism debates—and shows why multi-platform research is overdue:
"Functional counterpublics require supportive systems, civic spaces, and policy frameworks that allow them to emerge organically."
As I've written before, people don’t trust institutions because institutions aren't doing the job. Democracy rests on three pillars: Verification, Deliberation, Accountability, which can be understood as being substantial, performative, and simulated.
demos.co.uk/research/ver...
demos.co.uk/research/ver...
Verification, Deliberation, Accountability: A new framework for tackling epistemic collapse and renewing democracy
Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.
demos.co.uk
January 27, 2026 at 6:56 PM
"Functional counterpublics require supportive systems, civic spaces, and policy frameworks that allow them to emerge organically."
In this current information environment that hollowness is recognised by the public, and people seek alternative systems, in spaces where institutions, publics, and counterpublics compete for attention.
January 25, 2026 at 10:11 AM
In this current information environment that hollowness is recognised by the public, and people seek alternative systems, in spaces where institutions, publics, and counterpublics compete for attention.
The way I describe it is we have to distribute functional VDA systems across networks publics and counterpublics, which is what we already do, but at scale and rapidly.
January 25, 2026 at 8:46 AM
The way I describe it is we have to distribute functional VDA systems across networks publics and counterpublics, which is what we already do, but at scale and rapidly.
I just read this carefully and I think we need to spread a light weight version of it with simple advice how to organize or strengthen functional counterpublics
January 25, 2026 at 7:51 AM
I just read this carefully and I think we need to spread a light weight version of it with simple advice how to organize or strengthen functional counterpublics
Today, back in Düsseldorf at Tanzhaus NRW for One Minute of Dancing at the workshop on Artistic and Activist Counterpublics…
tanzhaus-nrw.de/en/event/202...
tanzhaus-nrw.de/en/event/202...
Artistic and Activist Counterpublics in Light of the Neo-Authoritarian Shift
In cooperation with the junior professorship “Theater Studies with a Focus on Transnational Theater” at Ruhr University Bochum
tanzhaus-nrw.de
January 17, 2026 at 9:20 AM
Today, back in Düsseldorf at Tanzhaus NRW for One Minute of Dancing at the workshop on Artistic and Activist Counterpublics…
tanzhaus-nrw.de/en/event/202...
tanzhaus-nrw.de/en/event/202...
further reading for this month's project ("subscription required") 🐋 📖
January 14, 2026 at 8:43 AM
further reading for this month's project ("subscription required") 🐋 📖
But the criticism presented here is quite the opposite of the centralization and control of the town square, it‘s of the fracturing of the mass public into smaller counterpublics
but that’s the point—a portable, algorithmically-dissembled, contrived Town Square™️ funded, propagated and policed by regressive elements is the exact and careful negation of the public sphere as he knew it
January 12, 2026 at 6:09 PM
But the criticism presented here is quite the opposite of the centralization and control of the town square, it‘s of the fracturing of the mass public into smaller counterpublics
Here's the abstract, @jacobharr.is. (Not a subscriber -- accessed through my uni's library.)
January 10, 2026 at 2:11 AM
Here's the abstract, @jacobharr.is. (Not a subscriber -- accessed through my uni's library.)
This is how Farage builds his coalition of disordered counterpublics, mimicking the MAGA coalition of disordered counterpublics.
Farage: "I believe in vaccinations when they're vaccinations. I don't think what happened with Covid were vaccinations. You have to keep having them every 6 months."
Conspiratorial nonsense.
Some vaccinations like Covid shots require multiple/seasonal doses because immunity fades & viruses change.
Conspiratorial nonsense.
Some vaccinations like Covid shots require multiple/seasonal doses because immunity fades & viruses change.
January 7, 2026 at 9:05 PM
This is how Farage builds his coalition of disordered counterpublics, mimicking the MAGA coalition of disordered counterpublics.
Looking for space to express your emotions and turn grief, rage, and pain into narrative power? Join us in collaboration with Muslim Counterpublics Lab and Muslim Writers' Salon for our Writing for Resistance virtual workshop!
Register for free at bit.ly/write4resistance
Register for free at bit.ly/write4resistance
January 6, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Looking for space to express your emotions and turn grief, rage, and pain into narrative power? Join us in collaboration with Muslim Counterpublics Lab and Muslim Writers' Salon for our Writing for Resistance virtual workshop!
Register for free at bit.ly/write4resistance
Register for free at bit.ly/write4resistance
How do Muslim podcasts create digital counterpublics in the Anglosphere? Shaheen Amid Whyte uses digital ethnography to examine how Muslim-owned platforms reclaim self-agency and construct online publics across the UK, US & Australia. #Islam #OnlineFirst
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:24 PM
How do Muslim podcasts create digital counterpublics in the Anglosphere? Shaheen Amid Whyte uses digital ethnography to examine how Muslim-owned platforms reclaim self-agency and construct online publics across the UK, US & Australia. #Islam #OnlineFirst
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
I’m doing “Publics and Counterpublics” by Michael Warner, just to piss people off
Ok, everyone, what book is sacred enough to you to get sworn in on?
Strange takes on Mayor Zamdani swearing his oath on the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with church & state. The point of the oath is for the person swearing in to do so upon some text that is sacred TO THEM. Some Presidents swore in w/o any book. John Quincy Adams was sworn on a law book. His choice.
January 2, 2026 at 3:03 AM
I’m doing “Publics and Counterpublics” by Michael Warner, just to piss people off
"Chapter 10: Counterpublics" by Carlos A. Flores and Sarah E. Jones focuses on the relationship between theories of the public sphere and rhetorical theory. It presents a detailed history and foundational definitions of the public sphere and counterpublics.
December 28, 2025 at 6:18 PM
"Chapter 10: Counterpublics" by Carlos A. Flores and Sarah E. Jones focuses on the relationship between theories of the public sphere and rhetorical theory. It presents a detailed history and foundational definitions of the public sphere and counterpublics.
This pairs well with Elliot Higgins‘ writing on disordered discourse and disordered counterpublics.
bsky.app/profile/elio...
bsky.app/profile/elio...
What we’re witnessing in America is what happens when disordered discourse captures a political party, then the state itself. The Republican Party was the first to fall - abandoning truth for conspiracy, ideology for grievance, and policy for performative outrage.
December 20, 2025 at 7:00 AM
This pairs well with Elliot Higgins‘ writing on disordered discourse and disordered counterpublics.
bsky.app/profile/elio...
bsky.app/profile/elio...
I have the very best faculty ever in the College of Communication at the University of Sharjah. From Dr. Omar Daoudi and Dr. Muhammad Awais (PhD),
"Counterpublics in exile: a computational analysis of Syrian YouTube podcasts during the Assad era"
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
"Counterpublics in exile: a computational analysis of Syrian YouTube podcasts during the Assad era"
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I have the very best faculty ever in the College of Communication at the University of Sharjah. From Dr. Omar Daoudi and Dr. Muhammad Awais (PhD),
"Counterpublics in exile: a computational analysis of Syrian YouTube podcasts during the Assad era"
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
"Counterpublics in exile: a computational analysis of Syrian YouTube podcasts during the Assad era"
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
@cbadley.bsky.social dives into fanfic, "ship theory" and queer counterpublics in "Moby-Dick from Below: Fans, Fictions, and Ship Theory" muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Project MUSE - <i>Moby-Dick</i> from Below: Fans, Fictions, and Ship Theory
muse.jhu.edu
December 10, 2025 at 1:17 AM
@cbadley.bsky.social dives into fanfic, "ship theory" and queer counterpublics in "Moby-Dick from Below: Fans, Fictions, and Ship Theory" muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
🔓 Free to read until January 1st:
▫️Roy, R., Purkayastha, B., Choudhury Lahiri, S., Rajak, D., & Ebenezer, D. (2025). Relational counterpublics: Media discourses on the COVID Delta variant surge in India. Current Sociology, 0(0). doi.org/10.1177/0011...
▫️Roy, R., Purkayastha, B., Choudhury Lahiri, S., Rajak, D., & Ebenezer, D. (2025). Relational counterpublics: Media discourses on the COVID Delta variant surge in India. Current Sociology, 0(0). doi.org/10.1177/0011...
December 8, 2025 at 4:59 AM
🔓 Free to read until January 1st:
▫️Roy, R., Purkayastha, B., Choudhury Lahiri, S., Rajak, D., & Ebenezer, D. (2025). Relational counterpublics: Media discourses on the COVID Delta variant surge in India. Current Sociology, 0(0). doi.org/10.1177/0011...
▫️Roy, R., Purkayastha, B., Choudhury Lahiri, S., Rajak, D., & Ebenezer, D. (2025). Relational counterpublics: Media discourses on the COVID Delta variant surge in India. Current Sociology, 0(0). doi.org/10.1177/0011...
"They revisit Higgins’s path from early web forums to Bellingcat, look at the MAGA coalition as a patchwork of disordered counterpublics, and debate whether America is trapped in a simulated democracy.
December 1, 2025 at 4:07 AM
"They revisit Higgins’s path from early web forums to Bellingcat, look at the MAGA coalition as a patchwork of disordered counterpublics, and debate whether America is trapped in a simulated democracy.
"how algorithms reward outrage, how 'bespoke realities' form, why counterpublics can devolve into virtual cults, and what 'simulated' accountability looks like in practice.
December 1, 2025 at 4:07 AM
"how algorithms reward outrage, how 'bespoke realities' form, why counterpublics can devolve into virtual cults, and what 'simulated' accountability looks like in practice.
Thank you @evolvingempathy.bsky.social for sharing this excellent conversation between @cwarzel.bsky.social and @eliothiggins.bsky.social
@jbf1755.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social have you seen this discussion about information and counterpublics? You both are essential verifications for me!
@jbf1755.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social have you seen this discussion about information and counterpublics? You both are essential verifications for me!
November 29, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Thank you @evolvingempathy.bsky.social for sharing this excellent conversation between @cwarzel.bsky.social and @eliothiggins.bsky.social
@jbf1755.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social have you seen this discussion about information and counterpublics? You both are essential verifications for me!
@jbf1755.bsky.social @hcrichardson.bsky.social have you seen this discussion about information and counterpublics? You both are essential verifications for me!
I try to separate disorder, which relates to the simulation of verification, deliberation and accountability, with structural injustice, which can be supported by substantial, hollow, and simulated VDA functions, and results in the formation of counterpublics.
November 29, 2025 at 11:25 AM
I try to separate disorder, which relates to the simulation of verification, deliberation and accountability, with structural injustice, which can be supported by substantial, hollow, and simulated VDA functions, and results in the formation of counterpublics.
ARTICLE: “The Apostle of the Monkey Ancestral Business”: Darwinism and Black Newspapers as Counterpublics, 1859–1929 thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/a...
ARTICLE: “The Apostle of the Monkey Ancestral Business”: Darwinism and Black Newspapers as Counterpublics, 1859–1929
In the journal Isis: “The Apostle of the Monkey Ancestral Business”: Darwinism and Black Newspapers as Counterpublics, 1859–1929 Matthew W. Hughey Abstract After Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of S…
thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:30 AM
ARTICLE: “The Apostle of the Monkey Ancestral Business”: Darwinism and Black Newspapers as Counterpublics, 1859–1929 thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/a...
Think this dovetails with Higgins‘ discussion of disorganized counterpublics also, whereas we have no way of creating organized meaning, someone else can try to impose theirs on us
November 24, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Think this dovetails with Higgins‘ discussion of disorganized counterpublics also, whereas we have no way of creating organized meaning, someone else can try to impose theirs on us
Queer spaces in my experience exist in a location of neglect, as heteronormative institutions have the most resources and the most clear histories and expectations!! Queer counterpublics are defined in negation of the familial institution!
November 24, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Queer spaces in my experience exist in a location of neglect, as heteronormative institutions have the most resources and the most clear histories and expectations!! Queer counterpublics are defined in negation of the familial institution!