Former Fellow

Elisa Piras

Postdoctoral Researcher in Political Philosophy, Sant’Anna School for Advanced Studies, Pisa (Italy)

Project title:
The Crumbling Public. Analyzing power dynamics within the public sphere

Research abstract:
The project aims at producing a sound theoretical study to investigate how pathologies of information and epistemic injustices have caused a blackout of the public sphere within contemporary democratic societies, making the formation of public opinion less predictable and ‘disconnecting’ the public from governments as well as from the information system, hampering the accountability and justificatory mechanisms that have been conceptualized by influential contemporary authors such as Rawls and Habermas. The argumentation will rely on insights presented by authors who have worked on public opinion at the beginning of the 20th century and it will present and discuss the main contemporary philosophical-political views on the pathological processes produced by power asymmetries and their effects on the public sphere – disinformation and epistemic injustices – in order to challenge/criticize the liberal accounts of the public sphere as a stability factor for a (just and stable) democratic political system based on dialogue and deliberation.

Events:
23 November 2021
Post-pandemic Frontiers of Global Justice
Lecture at the Colloquium Political Theory

  • Biografische Angaben

    Elisa Piras is Post-doctoral Fellow in Political Philosophy at DIRPOLIS Institute, Sant'Anna School for Advanced Studies (Pisa). She is didactic coordinator of the Master in Human Rights and Conflict Management. Her research interests focus on contemporary political liberalism and its international implications, theories of public opinion, history of political thought, security and gender.
  • Publikationen

    – “Se l’è andata a cercare! Violenza di genere, colpevolizzazione della vittima e ingiustizia epistemica”, Ragion Pratica, 1, 2021, pp. 251-272. – “Inequality in the Public Sphere: Epistemic Injustice, Discrimination and Violence”, in Democracy and Fake News: Information Manipulation and Post-Truth Politics, edited by Serena Giusti and Elisa Piras, London: Routledge, Chapter 2, pp. 30-39. – “Migration and Theories of Justice: a Critical Reappraisal”, Soft Power. Revista euroamericana de teoría e historia de la política y del derecho, vol. 6, no. 1 (2019), pp. 337-361.

News from the research center

News
30.06.2025

Article "Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?" by Amadeus Ulrich published in EJPT

The article "Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?" by Amadeus Ulrich has just been published open access in the European Journal of Political Theory (EJPT). Ulrich brings the perspective of radical realism into a productive dialog with Adorno's critical theory.

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News
30.06.2025

Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay awarded the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Prize 2025

Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay (Junior Professor of Ethnology with a focus on Political Anthropology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and former postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center Normative Orders at Goethe University) receives the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Award 2025 in the category Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Publication
25.06.2025 | Online article

Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?

Ulrich, Amadeus (2025): Ideology and suffering: What is realistic about critical theory? European Journal of Political Theory, 0(0).  https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851251351782

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News
24.06.2025

New series “Vertrauensfragen” in the Frankfurter Rundschau initiated by Hendrik Simon

Democracy thrives on debate - if it serves the joint search for solutions. There is often a problem with this cooperation. The new FR series “Vertrauensfragen”, initiated by Hendrik Simon (Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) Frankfurt location at Goethe University's Research Centre Normative Orders ), examines why this is the case and how we can do better.

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Publication
23.06.2025 | Working Paper

Untrustworthy Authorities and Complicit Bankers: Unraveling Monetary Distrust in Argentina

Moreno, Guadalupe (2025): “Untrustworthy Authorities and Complicit Bankers: Unraveling Monetary Distrust in Argentina”. Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Discussion Paper 25/3.

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News
22.05.2025

Does deliberative democracy have a future in the age of oligarchs, autocrats and patriarchs?

On June 3, Prof. Simone Chambers will give a lecture on the value of democracies and the future of the form of government.

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Publication
19.05.2025 | Anthology

Klimaethik. Ein Reader

Sparenborg, Lukas; Moellendorf, Darrel (Hrsg.) (2025) : Klimaethik. Ein Reader. Suhrkamp.

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News
19.05.2025

What can a baroque tapestry tell us about colonial iconography?

Lecture by Cécile Fromone on May 21. The professor at the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, director of the Cooper Gallery at the Hutchins Center and author will talk about the long-forgotten African origins of iconography and its colonial dimension.

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News
05.05.2025

Normative Orders Newsletter 01/25 published

The newsletter from Research Centre Normative Orders collects information on current events, reports, news and publications several times a year. Read the first issue 2025 here.

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