Antropologicheskij forum, 2017, no. 34

A Review of NIKOLAI VAKHTIN, BORIS FIRSOV (eds.), PUBLIC DEBATE IN RUSSIA. MATTERS OF (DIS)ORDER. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016, 344 pp.

Denis Letnyakov

The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
82/9 Vernadskogo Av., Moscow, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
12-1 Goncharnaya Str., Moscow, Russia
letnyakov@mail.ru

Abstract: The authors of the book are united by considering the common problem: there are no effective mechanisms for the public discussions of vital problems in Russia. The authors start from the position that a “syndrome of public aphasia” is not the least of the causes of this, and that it is the result of the underdevelopment of what might be called the ‘public register’ of the Russian language. The lack of skills for civilized participation in social discussions is felt as a real barrier to the development of civil society in modern Russia.

Keywords: public sphere, public register, the Russian language, discourse, civil society.

To cite: Letnyakov D., ‘A Review of Nikolai Vakhtin and Boris Firsov (eds.), Public Debate in Russia. Matters of (Dis)order. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016, 344 pp.’, Antropologicheskij forum, 2017, no. 34, pp. 270–280.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/034/letnyakov.pdf