Communication Legitimation and Morality in Modern Politics

<p>Why? This question drives scientific inquiry not least in the social sciences: why war revolution racism and inequality? Asking and debating about ‘why?’ however is not the prerogative of scholars; social actors endowed with thought reflection and speech do it too. While we all dance to the beat of genes emotions identities and habituated norms we occasionally stop to ask ‘why?’ The social sciences have been long preoccupied with the ostensibly objective ‘why’ while sidelining the social intersubjective ‘why?’ This book focuses on the latter analysing the social actors’ search for justification in their public political sphere. Justifications broadly understood are answers to why-questions given and debated by social actors. The chapters focus on public justifications. While the contributors do not submit that private encounters addressing why-questions do not matter they choose to put public encounters addressing these questions under scrutiny. Given the ongoing telecommunications revolution and new political practices associated with it these public encounters become increasingly pertinent in our evolving political orders.</p><p></p><p>This book originally published as a special issue in <em>Contemporary Politics</em>. </p>