Prof. Peter Mayo is invited Speaker at the Conference on the public sphere which takes place in the Department of Communications and Social Research (CORIS) at the University of Rome 1 Sapienza where he was Visiting Professor last June-July. He is the last speaker on the second and final day, 14 March and will focus on the Learning Society as conceived of from a Gramscian perspective.
The entire programme in Italian is listed below:
Hermeneutics Seminar “Magistri sine registro” 2025 – 10th Edition
STARTING FROM HABERMAS: WESTERN REASON, CHANGES IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND DEMOCRACY”
Rome 7 and 14 March 2025 – Wolf Hall, Co.Ri.S. Department: via Salaria 113 Rome
Friday 7 March (10:30-17:30)
WESTERN REASON AND DEMOCRACY
- Greetings from Alberto Marinelli (Director of the Co.Ri.S. Department);
- Coordinated by: Fiorenzo Parziale (Sapienza and Paideia) and Cristina Sofia (Sapienza);
- Walter Privitera (Unimib): Jürgen Habermas and his recent "History of Philosophy": an introduction;
- Ambrogio Santambrogio (Unipg): Enlightenment of dialectics. A Habermasian rereading of the 'Dialectic of Enlightenment';
- Stefano Petrucciani (Sapienza): Reason and religion in Habermas;
- Michele Prospero (Sapienza): Civil society in the latest Habermas;
- Francesca Romana Lenzi (Rome IV): Interdependence that challenges evolutionism. Social processes in Elias and Habermas;
- Giuseppe Ricotta (Sapienza): Social Inequality, Rights and Inclusion. A Decolonial Reading.
- Michele Sorice (Sapienza): Post-public sphere and democratic participation;
Debate
Friday 14 March (10:30-17:30)
TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND MEDIA ECOSYSTEMS
- Greetings from Rita Bichi (Paideia President) and Stefano Tomelleri (AIS President);
- Gianni Losito (Sapienza): Opening of the proceedings; Summary and commentary on the contents that emerged on the first day;
- Marina Calloni (Unimib): From the public sphere to the sphere of publics: what are the prospects for deliberative democracy in the digital age?;
- Massimo Cerulo (Unina): Public sphere and public opinion: conceptual and operational clarifications;
- Laura Gherardi (Unipr): Online hate speech: an example of communicative irrationality;
- Carlo Sorrentino (Unifi): Rethinking journalism for a dense public sphere;
- Peter Mayo (UNESCO Chair, University of Malta): The Learning Society as an Arena for Contesting Cultural Hegemony. Insights from Antonio Gramsci.
Debate
REGISTRATION: mandatory and free.
PARTICIPATION: in person or remotely (please indicate your choice)
INFORMATION and registration: by email.
CERTIFICATE of participation: upon request of the interested party.
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SCIENTIFIC AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE: Gianni Losito, Ria Bichi, Felice Addeo, Enrico Caniglia, Michela Cavagnuolo, Paolo Montesperelli, Fiorenzo Parziale, Ambrogio Santambrogio, Cristina Sofia.
WHAT IS THE “MAGISTRI SINE REGISTRO HERMENEUTICS SEMINAR”
This initiative is far from the somewhat “quantum-phrenic” and corporate conception of knowledge production. The meetings take place in a collected, dialogic, informal, non-hierarchical climate; they bring together established experts and young scholars; the horizon is hermeneutic, with a particular sensitivity to the methodology of the human sciences. Another characteristic of this initiative has always been its broad interdisciplinarity, to which experts in sociology, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, social research methodology, communication, semiotics, history, physics, etc. have contributed.
In 2012 we addressed the lines of the history of hermeneutic thought; the 2013 seminar was entirely dedicated to Ricoeur; in the following year we discussed some key words of the human sciences (sense, values, criticism, etc.); in the year that followed we focused on four other key words: ideology, ideologies, fundamentalisms, dialogue. The next edition was held on the theme “Counting and telling”; in 2019 the theme was: “Different/mind. Thinking about the difference, the other, the gap”. Then, with the outbreak of the pandemic, we had to suspend the initiative and then resume: on these themes “Educating is educating oneself: hermeneutics and educational processes” (2021), “Ideologies and utopias at the beginning of the third millennium” (2022); “'That infinite dialogue that we are': truth and interpretation starting from Hans-Georg Gadamer”.
