The uncivil sphere: How the digital age is fracturing truth and meaning, and undermining social-civil solidarity


Neil Wegenschimmel, University of Waterloo

The neo-modernist framework of Jeffrey Alexander’s civil sphere offers a vast lens for understanding how complex democracies manage inherent and inevitable tensions, engage in civil maintenance, and ultimately achieve civil incorporation. Despite the many insights offered by Alexander’s framework, the contemporary civil sphere finds itself anchored in still-modernist institutional mechanics that render it ill-equipped to grapple with escalating social and political challenges that have emerged since the 2010s. I offer a theoretical account of the limitations of a neo-modernist civil sphere amidst the rapid evolution of technology and digital networks that has taken place post-2006 (the year Alexander’s book was published), and how the forces unleashed in this period are threatening to destroy the civil fabric in dangerously accelerated ways. At the center of this work is a theoretical model that explores the relationships between cognition, shared reality, meaning-making, and truth discernment. I expound upon the concept of epistemosis: a psychosocial state that renders individuals unable, and perhaps unwilling, to discern what is true and real. This synthesized framework incorporates elements of existential and political psychology as well as sociology, philosophy, and political science. This study scrutinizes the intricate interplay between information proliferation and overabundance, emotionally charged narratives, and the hyperreal information-sharing environment that is the internet, to demonstrate how this combination of forces engenders a pervasive sense of suspicion toward reality itself, creating an environment conducive to the growing polarization of recent years, and beyond that, the ominous possibility of “reality collapse.” This research contends that this erosion of shared reality imperils both individual self-perception and the foundational principles of liberal democratic societies, thus bypassing traditional mechanisms of civil maintenance and repair that are core to the civil sphere framework. As part of this story, I will present recent empirical work on the perception of radicalization of political and social life in the United States. These studies delve into whether the perception of growing radicalization is correlated with an increased openness to extremism and authoritarianism. This study postulates a significant link between the perception of radicalization and measures of authoritarianism, political orientation, personal uncertainty, loneliness, and media consumption habits. It also provides empirical evidence that growing bi-partisan radicalism is rooted in problems of information and understanding. Furthermore, an archival analysis of ideologically motivated violence in the United States over time was conducted to discern whether psychological perceptions align with observable societal changes. Taken together, this work confronts some of the novel risks posed to liberal democracy and assesses their implications for a well-functioning civil sphere. Additionally, it investigates the intricate relationships between perceived societal radicalization, authoritarianism, and the erosion of shared reality in the digital age. This research tasks itself with the urgency of adapting theoretical frameworks to the rapidly evolving socio-political landscape, and developing new ways of understanding fast-moving social, civil, and technological changes. As societies grapple with these challenges, understanding the evolving factors at play is imperative for safeguarding democracy, civil rights, and sustainable futures. This work does not assume that models like the civil sphere are deficient — far from it — but rather explores the possibility that we are in genuinely new territory, and thus in need of a roadmap for recalibrating theoretical frameworks to update and position the civil sphere firmly in the 21st-century. It hopes to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on the democratic future and societal cohesion in the face of unprecedented ecological challenges, growing authoritarianism, and a shifting global political order, so that we might continue, in the words of Alexander (2006), to “find new possibilities for justice.”

This paper will be presented at the following session: