Public Sphere Guide

Center versus Periphery

This section assembles literature analyzing the production structures of the public sphere in terms of the circulation of power between center and periphery of political-administrative and economic power, assessing the openness of the production of public communication and policy outcomes to the periphery. This includes literature on direct civil society and social movement outcomes as well as studies on the indirect influence of non-established actors on public communication and policy outcomes, transmitted through intermediary actors closer to the center of political-administrative and economic power. Another approach to analyze the production structures of the public sphere along the center versus periphery dimension is represented in the literature on the role of experts and elites in relationship to laypeople, that is, the broader public.