This is a history of returned soldiers of the Great War in Toronto covering the period from when they began returning home in 1915 through to the end of demobilization in late 1919. Based largely in newspaper research, the focus is the discourse of returned men, as they were frequently called, and the role they played in Toronto and in Canada more broadly. The dissertation examines veterans' attitudes, the opinions they expressed, the goals they collectively pursued, the actions they took and their significance as actors and symbols in the public sphere. The study shows that during and immediately after the war returned soldiers played a prominent role in public debate over conscription and wartime politics, the status of non-British immigrants in Canada, the Red Scare and re-establishment policy. In exploring these topics the study elaborates on the identities veterans collectively adopted and constructed for themselves as comrades and citizens. Class, definitions of masculinity, British-Canadian ethno-nationality and experience as soldiers all affected formulations of veteran citizenship and comradeship. Returned soldiers' representations of their citizenship resonated powerfully in Canadian society. The experiences and symbolism of returned soldiers generated interest in civilian society that granted them easy access to the public sphere and encouraged pro-war politicians to use returnees to promote the war effort. Veterans took advantage of their access to the press and public stages to broadcast their own views and claim that their service gave them special rights to intervene in public affairs. Comradeship was vitally important to returned soldiers and set them apart from civilians, but it was neither a simple nor stable category. Veterans' debates and the history of veterans' associations testify to the fact that collective service in the war did not erase civilian identities and create a stable platform for united collective activism after the war. Furthermore, comradeship sometimes existed uneasily with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Parliamentary methods were fundamental to veterans' activism, but their politics were also performative, often pursued and proclaimed at street level, and a minority of veterans threatened and engaged in violence they claimed was justified.

This thesis develops the Triangle Model, to offer a general framework through which the work of J&uuml / rgen Habermas could be better understood and assessed. Accordingly, it is argued that, it is possible to derive a triangle in Habermas&rsquo / s thought, formed by the concerns of publicness, communication, and democracy. Each corner of the triangle corresponds to a major concern and focus of Habermas&rsquo / s project chronologically. The Triangle Model provides an overview of continuities and discontinuities in Habermas&rsquo / s work. The main discontinuity found is between the first and the second corners of the triangle, namely between publicness and communication. It is argued that this rapture stems from an interpretive turn, composed of three points: the influence of Hegelian philosophy of human interaction, the concomitant criticism of Kantian foundationalism, and the incorporation of Arendt&rsquo / s communicative concept of power. This study also emphasises that there are points indicating continuity, or unity in Habermas&rsquo / s thought. First, an intersubjective theory of truth is employed in all three concerns or corners of the triangle. Second, in all these concerns, Habermas searches for an answer to the same question: &ldquo / how to produce legitimate norms&rdquo / . The principle of publicity and the authority of the better argument voiced in the first corner of the triangle -publicness-, the discourse ethics of the second corner, and the deliberative politics of the third corner are formulated and adapted by Habermas in order to find the ways of producing legitimate norms. In this context, it is argued that the deliberative politics is based on publicness and communication / or publicness and communication are indispensable for deliberative politics.

A problemática ambiental está vinculada à interdependência entre os processos ecológicos e à sua implicação na vida dos seres humanos. O direito ao ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado passa a ser compreendido como uma condição do direito à vida, interpretado, neste estudo, como direito humano fundamental. Com base na concepção de esfera pública de Habermas (1997), este trabalho teve como objetivo investigar a dinâmica da esfera pública relativa à tramitação de Projeto de Lei para alteração do Código Florestal Brasileiro, no âmbito do estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Trata-se de um estudo local frente a um debate nacional. A esfera pública foi investigada através de suas características de mediação e deliberação, considerando suas dimensões formal e informal. Habermas (1997) defende que a legitimidade do processo legislativo depende da participação daqueles que serão afetados pela legislação, o que, no caso de uma legislação ambiental, como o Código Florestal, corresponde a toda a sociedade. Este trabalho foi realizado por meio de pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa e natureza descritiva-exploratória. As técnicas de coleta de dados adotadas foram a observação participante, a entrevista semiestruturada, a pesquisa documental. A técnica de análise de dados utilizada foi a análise de conteúdo. Os dados analisados são referentes ao período de setembro de 2009 a abril de 2012. O estudo evidenciou que segmentos diversos da sociedade, como movimentos sociais e setor privado, mostraram-se atuantes na esfera pública política, relativamente à modificação do Código Florestal Brasileiro. O acesso às instâncias de participação é, no entanto, diferenciado, bem como os recursos disponíveis a cada segmento da sociedade, o que prejudica a qualidade da deliberação. Observou-se que os movimentos sociais possuem capacidade de revigorar as esferas públicas informais, mas em relação às esferas formais, a sociedade como um todo poderia ser melhor assimilada no processo de elaboração de uma legislação ambiental, a qual se destina a toda a sociedade. / The environmental issue has to do with the interdependence between the ecological processes and their implications on the life of human beings. The right to an ecologically balanced environment is therefore viewed in this study as a condition of the right to life, and a fundamental human right. Drawing on Habermas's conception of the public sphere (1997), this dissertation proposes to investigate the dynamics of the public sphere as regards a bill for the reform of the Brazilian Forest Code that is being processed in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This is therefore a local study addressing a national issue. The public sphere is investigated based on its properties of mediation and deliberation, and considering its formal and informal dimensions. Habermas (1997) argues that the legitimacy of the legislative process depends on the participation of those who will be affected by the legislation – in the case of environmental legislation such as the Forest Code, society as a whole. The analysis was developed from a qualitative descriptive/exploratory research study. The data collection techniques used were participant observation, semi-structured interviewing and documentary research. The data analysis technique used was content analysis. The data analyzed refers to the period between September 2009 and April 2012. The study showed that some segments of society, such as social movements and the private sector, are very active in the public sphere in the fight for the Brazilian Forest Code reform. However, access to the different levels of participation varies, as do the resources that are available to each segment of society, which affects the quality of the deliberation. Finally, the study showed that social movements promote the strengthening of the informal public spheres; however, as regards the formal spheres, it points to the fact that society as a whole could be further integrated into the process of elaboration of environmental legislation – which after all affects society as a whole.

166f. / Submitted by Oliveira Santos Dilzaná (dilznana@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-07-08T13:10:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao José Marício Carneiro Daltro Bittencourt.pdf: 1186985 bytes, checksum: 10e50de10dd25921ef9d3944537e05c8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Portela(anapoli@ufba.br) on 2013-07-09T16:53:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao José Marício Carneiro Daltro Bittencourt.pdf: 1186985 bytes, checksum: 10e50de10dd25921ef9d3944537e05c8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-07-09T16:53:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao José Marício Carneiro Daltro Bittencourt.pdf: 1186985 bytes, checksum: 10e50de10dd25921ef9d3944537e05c8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Este estudo busca analisar o campo conflituoso dos usos diferenciais do espaço urbano a partir da 7ª Etapa de Revitalização do Centro Histórico, no Pelourinho (Salvador), observado do ponto de vista da formação de esferas públicas de mediação e encaminhamento dos interesses conflitantes entre os moradores e o Governo do Estado – ambos defendendo o patrimônio histórico, mas cada um de seu próprio ponto de vista. A questão central em análise é a reconstituição de um campo de conflito em formação, e como, ao longo do processo, os moradores vão se transformando em sujeitos de direitos, com suas ambiguidades e contradições, através de um processo reflexivo, não-linear, com avanços e recuos, de avaliação sobre os usos do espaço público urbano. Apesar de se constituir numa experiência que afetou um pequeno número de moradores, foi capaz de mobilizar interlocutores em grande escala, desde moradores locais, técnicos do Estado e imprensa até representantes do Governo Federal e de organizações internacionais. O debate entre moradores e o governo permite observar concepções e valores distintos quanto à abordagem do patrimônio e à concepção da “revitalização”: a racionalidade do planejamento do governo e os interesses constituídos pelos moradores do local, que contrapuseram a “cidade planejada” e a “cidade vivida”, o patrimônio material e o patrimônio imaterial. O detalhamento deste conflito tem como base a documentação elaborada pelo trabalho de assessoria aos movimentos populares de luta por moradia, pelos procedimentos judiciais construídos em defesa dos moradores e por matérias de jornal. A partir desses documentos foram sendo analisadas as ações comunicativas de defesa e contestação elaboradas como justificativas nas arenas constituídas com vistas à construção da participação popular no projeto da 7ª Etapa de Revitalização do Centro Histórico de Salvador. O resultado deste trabalho mostra que o processo político não é linear; destaca as lutas no âmbito dos próprios moradores; avalia os limites e alcances do processo participativo e a contradição inerente aos usos do espaço urbano, especialmente nas situações de preservação de sítios históricos. This study seeks to analyze the conflicted field of the different uses of urban space within the 7th Stage of the Revitalization of the Historic Center at Pelourinho (Salvador, Bahia), observed from the viewpoint of the formation of public spheres of mediation and routing of conflicting interests among the residents and the State Government – both defending the heritage, but each one of your own point of view. The central question at hand is the reconstruction of a field of conflict in the making, and how, throughout the process, residents are transformed into subjects of rights, with its ambiguities and contradictions, through a reflective, non-linear process of assessment of the uses of public space, with advances and retreats. Even though this is an experience that affected only a small number of residents, it was able to mobilize large-scale actors, from local residents, technicians and state representatives to press the federal government and international organizations. In the debate between residents and State government one can observe different views and values about equity and the approach to the concept of "revitalization": the rationality of government planning and the interests generated by local residents, who countered the "planned city" and "lived city”, the “material heritage” and the “intangible heritage”. The details of this conflict is based on documentation prepared by the advisory work of popular movements fighting for housing, by the judicial procedures on behalf of the residents and by newspaper articles. From these documents it was possible to analyze the communicative actions of defense and disputation as justifications in the public arenas prepared to the construction of popular participation in the 7th Stage of the Revitalization of the Historic Center of Salvador. The result of this work shows that the political process is not linear; highlights the contradictions implicit in the context of the struggles of the residents themselves; assesses the limits and scope of the participatory process and the contradiction inherent in the use of urban space, especially in situations of preservation of heritage sites. / Salvador

The thesis, Indigenous language programming and citizen participation in Ugandan broadcasting: an exploratory study constitutes an analysis of the significance of policy on indigenous language programming in Uganda's broadcast media. The thesis is conceived broadly within a critical studies' framework. It emphasizes the role of the broadcast media in the public sphere, as well as policy on linguistic diversity in making the public sphere more accessible to the majority of Ugandans. Fundamental assumptions of the thesis are the following: * The imperatives of the market are in tension with the need to preserve a significant amount of indigenous language broadcasting in Uganda's broadcast media for purposes of diversity; * This tension can be discerned in the political-economic environment within which the broadcast media in Uganda have evolved and operate as well as in public debate on indigenous language programming in the broadcast media; * The current state of the media's structure, operation and regulation have their roots in Uganda's political history; and * Policy on the indigenous languages has a bearing on Ugandans' capacity to participate meaningfully in the democratic process via the broadcast media. The thesis documents key social, political and economic factors surrounding policy on indigenous language broadcasting in Uganda using interviews, an analysis of Uganda's political history as well as key legal documents related to diversity and participation. It documents public debate on the significance of language policy for the participation of Ugandans in the democratic process through the broadcast media and examines how changes in the structure and operation of Uganda's broadcast media, especially since the liberalisation of the airwaves in the early 1990s, are perceived by Ugandans to have affected their participation in the democratic process through the media. Finally the thesis makes recommendations for future communication policy with regards to the role of language in enhancing diversity and participation. / Communication Science / D.Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

A motivação para estudar modelos de democracia, em especial a participativa no viés deliberativo, deita raízes na conjuntura histórica compreendendo pelo menos duas décadas, em que ocorrem debates acadêmicos, lutas democráticas e movimentos sociais que vêm em alguns países nos últimos anos dando voz às reivindicações populares por mudanças nos modelos atuais de democracia, e por maior participação popular e um alargamento dos espaços públicos para discussões. Nesse contexto, o Orçamento Participativo se destaca como experiência no Brasil e em muitos países como instrumento para essas mudanças. O marco teórico escolhido foi a démarche de Jürgen Habermas. Suas digressões sobre democracia deliberativa envolvem diretamente as formulações sobre o conteúdo da esfera pública e seu reposicionamento em arranjo interno mais amplo relacionando-a com os sistemas da sociedade. A principal experiência objeto da pesquisa foi o Orçamento Participativo de Cascais, em razão do estágio de doutoramento com bolsa concedida pela CAPES no ano de 2013. / The motivation to study models of democracy, especially in participatory deliberative bias, is based on the historical context comprising at least two decades, they occur academic debates, democratic struggles and social movements that come in some countries in recent years giving voice to the claims popular for changes in current models of democracy, and greater popular participation and a broadening of public spaces for discussions. In this context, the Participatory Budget stands as experience in Brazil and in many countries as a tool for these changes. The chosen theoretical complex was the demarche of Jürgen Habermas. Their tours on deliberative democracy involve formulations directly on the contents of the public sphere and its repositioning in broader internal arrangement relating it to the systems of society. The main object of the research experience was the Participatory Budget of Cascais- PT, due to the doctoral stage with scholarship granted by CAPES in 2013.

Submitted by JULIANA LARISSA DE LAET GOMES null (laet.juliana@gmail.com) on 2016-03-01T01:45:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação final.pdf: 3942361 bytes, checksum: cfd4070a7cad2ebd8bcbaa4e8adba706 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-03-01T16:09:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 gomes_jll_me_mar.pdf: 3942361 bytes, checksum: cfd4070a7cad2ebd8bcbaa4e8adba706 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-01T16:09:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 gomes_jll_me_mar.pdf: 3942361 bytes, checksum: cfd4070a7cad2ebd8bcbaa4e8adba706 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-04 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A partir de um histórico da relação da cidade de São Paulo com os meios de comunicação, que resgata facetas de nossa cultura política, de um apanhado conceitual que ilumina os vários significados pessoais e coletivos da comunicação mediada e de uma pesquisa empírica viva que destaca imagens, experiências e lugares das manifestações de junho de 2013, essa dissertação oferece uma contribuição teórica que descortina o elo entre as pequenas telas individuais e as grandes telas coletivas que são palco da ação política contemporânea. Investiga-se a constituição de uma nova esfera pública a partir da atuação nas tecnologias móveis de informação e comunicação, que são denominadas pequenas telas. Através das pequenas telas os indivíduos se colocam na esfera pública, a grande tela. Atuar no espaço público, nesse contexto, envolve estar presente em tais telas, mas isso não basta. Os novos meios de informação e comunicação, como ímãs, atraem os indivíduos para determinados locais que se tornam centrais na ação, ao mesmo tempo em que os espaços somente podem se tornar centrais e se constituírem como espaços públicos quando a ação neles ocorre. O registro da selfie, dos vídeos e dos relatos das experiências vividas no espaço público durante a ação política, feito através das pequenas telas, são ferramentas de atuação política através das quais os espaços da cidade são ressignificados numa relação íntima, porém mediada, do usuário com eles. Tal experiência é vivida, então, coletivamente nas grandes telas que são palco da ação política. / From a historical account of the relationship between the city of São Paulo and the media, which retrieves facets of our political culture; through a conceptual overview that show forth the various individual and collective meanings of mediated communication; and through a vivid empirical research that highlights images, experiences and places of the demonstrations of June 2013, this dissertation provides a theoretical contribution that reveals the link between the individual small screens and the big screens that are the collective arena of contemporary political action. The establishment of a new public sphere is investigated from the deeds that take place through mobile information and communication technologies, namely small screens. Through these small screens, individuals set themselves into the public sphere — the big screen. Acting in the public space in this context involves being present in these screens, but this is not enough. New information and communication media, like magnets, attract individuals to certain places, which become central to action, insofar as spaces themselves can only become central and be constituted as public spaces when people effectively act within them. The selfie, the videos and the narratives of experiences occurred in public spaces during political action perpetrated through small screens are tools of political activity in which the city spaces are reinterpreted in an intimate, even though mediated, relationship with their individual users. These experiences, then, are lived collectively on the big screens, the arena of political action.

A dissertação oferece um estudo panorâmico sobre os conceitos de teologia pública e de esfera pública, com destaque para o contexto brasileiro. No primeiro capítulo, são identificadas diferentes compreensões de teologia pública, classificadas segundo modelos de fundamentação e modelos de atuação. Com base nos exemplos norte-americano e sul- africano, argumenta-se que a diversidade conceitual relativa ao tema é um reflexo de preocupações específicas a cada contexto, de maneira a ser possível presumir que uma teologia pública no Brasil igualmente assuma uma feição teórica própria. No segundo capítulo, são descritas três importantes concepções de esfera pública presentes no pensamento filosófico contemporâneo: a liberal, com representantes como John Rawls e Bruce Ackerman; a republicana (e comunitarista), aqui representada por Hannah Arendt e Charles Taylor; e a discursiva, especialmente desenvolvida por Jürgen Habermas. O referencial teórico habermasiano o mais recorrente em análises sociológicas sobre a esfera pública no Brasil, tema do terceiro capítulo. Procura-se demonstrar que, apesar de uma forte tradição patrimonialista que caracteriza a história política do país, importantes transformações sociais têm concorrido para a constituição de uma esfera pública discursiva. No último capítulo, tendo em vista esse contexto de reconstrução democrática, é apresentado um breve esboço de um modelo de teologia pública ancorada no mundo da vida e pautada pelo diálogo conceitos explorados com base, especialmente, na concepção discursiva de esfera pública e em contribuições dos diversos modelos de teologia pública, desde uma perspectiva latino- americana de Teologia. / This essay offers a panoramic study about the concepts of public theology and public sphere, especially concerning the Brazilian context. In the first chapter, different understandings of public theology are identified and classified according to models of substantiation and models of performance. Based on the North American and South African examples, it is argued that the conceptual diversity concerning the theme is a reflection of concerns that are specific to each context, meaning that it is possible to assume that a public theology in Brazil develops its own theoretical feature as well. In the second chapter, we describe three important concepts of public sphere present in the contemporary philosophical thought: the liberal, with representatives like John Rawls and Bruce Ackerman, the republican (and communitarian), represented by Hannah Arendt and Charles Taylor, and the discursive, especially developed by Jürgen Habermas. Habermasian theoretical reference is the most recurrent in sociological analysis about public sphere in Brazil, which is the theme of the third chapter. We seek to demonstrate that major social changes have contributed to the creation of a discursive public sphere, despite a strong patrimonial tradition that characterizes the country's political history. In the last chapter, in view of this context of democratic reconstruction, we present a brief outline of a model of public theology anchored in the world of life and guided by dialogue concepts explored, especially, on the basis of a discursive conception of public sphere and contributions from the various models of public theology, from a Latin American perspective of theology.

abstract: At their cores, both rhetoric and public sphere theory have conceptualized how membership in public and counterpublic settings, as well as participation in public life and discussion, is cultivated, shared, contested, and shaped. Previous case studies on publics and counterpublics have looked at the experiences of individuals and collectives who enact practices in rhetorical invention that mark participation in public life. Much of public sphere scholarship focuses squarely on seasoned individuals in positions of authority and decision making in mainstream publics. Conversely, counterpublic spheres focus on the labor of individuals who have extensive experience in articulating discursive practices in response to dominant publics. However, a quietude that has permeated much of rhetoric and public sphere scholarship comes by way of the absence of youth-based voices in the public sphere. It is these same youths who are expected to lead the very publics that claim to represent them, yet do not afford them a mode of participation or agency in their own right. Given that studies in critical and vernacular rhetoric invest significant inquiry into the ways that marginalized communities enact responses towards dominant and mainstream ideologies, it is necessary to consider how these youthful perspectives contribute to rhetoric and the public sphere writ large. In an effort to inform the rhetorical tradition of its potential in accounting for the voices of youth, this study explores the ways in which youth speak, perform, and embody the various ways in which they belong to a public sphere. Through fieldwork in the LGBTQ youth organization One n’ Ten, I aim to speak to the ways in which rhetorical scholarship can begin to move towards a rhetoric of youth in public life. In this field, I utilize the concepts of enclaving and imagining in counterpublic spheres to examine the practices, discourses, and values that give rise to a queer counterpublicity that emboldens LGBTQ youth to speak and act in a way that honors their identities. Moreover, I draw on theories of critical and vernacular rhetorics to make sense of how One n’ Ten provides youth with opportunities to enact rhetorical agency conducive toward participation in public and counterpublic spheres. Finally, I discuss implications pertaining to how the experiences of young individuals stand to substantially inform theories in public, counterpublic, critical, and vernacular rhetorics, all of which contain opportunities to represent the experiences of both LGBTQ youth and youth writ large as members of public life. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication Studies 2018

Ce travail de thèse questionne la place que les dispositifs numériques d'information et de communication occupent dans la reconfiguration de l'espace public (Habermas, 1991) contemporaine post-soviétique. Il étudie également l'émergence, l'inscription sociale et l'usage politique des espaces participatifs du web - tels que les blogs, les forums ou les réseaux sociaux, au sein de cette société. Aussi, nous explorons le processus de la médiation, tel qu'il s'exerce à l'extérieur de la médiatisation classique dans la sphère publique nationale post-soviétique. Après avoir appliqué les différentes méthodes d'analyse des réseaux (cartographie, entretiens semi-directifs, observation participative), nous pouvons constater qu'actuellement en Russie contemporaine nous observons l'éclatement de l'espace public unique et le retour au modèle de double espace public: officiel « dominant », constitué en grande partie des médias audio-visuels, la presse écrite nationale et des partis politiques institutionnalisés et l'espace « parallèle » constitué des « nouveaux » médias numériques (Kiriya, 2012). Ces tendances nous montrent la persistance des formes et des configurations de l'espace public dans la société malgré les changements économiques et sociaux. Dans le contexte post-soviétique, les « nouveaux » médias numérisés soutiennent à la fracture sociale et politique dans la société et épargnent l'espace public officiel des discours et des débats oppositionnels. En même temps, ces dispositifs contribuent à l'apparition des nouveaux acteurs des débats et de la production de l'information, et au maintien de la diversité des opinions. De ca fait, les dispositifs numériques de communication peuvent être insérés dans les espaces sociaux différents et d'accompagner les pratiques de libération et de domination en même temps. Notre travail montre que le déploiement des réseaux socionumériques et des médias numériques post-soviétiques participe aux évolutions plus générales de la société post-soviétique. Ils stabilisent et rendent visible la configuration des acteurs des espaces sociaux préexistants. L'étude de l'ancrage politique des réseaux socionumériques et des médias dans l'espace public officiel nous conduit à adopter une vision critique de la théorie « positiviste » des réseaux socionumériques en tant qu'outils de délibération et de débats argumentatifs. Ainsi, l'espace numérique post-soviétique est devenu une prolongation de l'espace public officiel de domination tout en assurant l'appropriation des discours étatiques propagandistes et leur pénétration dans l'espace privé. Ce travail montre que l'ancrage social (Miège, 2007) et politique de ces outils dans la société Russe est plutôt conservatif et ne contribue à la libération et démocratisation de la société. Bien au contraire – ces outils sont utilisés pour reproduire l'ordre politique dominant, diviser l'espace public etc. Les débats et les mobilisations sur le net ont faiblement contribué à l'émancipation et aux changements sociaux. Insérés dans les champs sociaux nationaux existants, ces médias numériques ont incité à la délibération et la maîtrise de la violence. En même temps, ils pouvaient être mobilisés par les acteurs dominants afin d'asseoir leur domination et leur violence. Dans le contexte post-soviétique, les technologies numériques ont contribué au déclin de la mobilisation politique d'opposition, renforçant l'isolement des acteurs politiques, exclus de l'espace public, et un contrôle social profitable aux autorités russes actuelles. L'expression « spontanée » de mouvements sociaux s'effectue selon les formes protestataires historiquement préexistantes (Bertrand Cabedoche, 2010) et notre étude du cas post-soviétique le confirme pleinement. / This PhD work questions the place of digital information and communication devices involved in the reconfiguration of the contemporary post-Soviet public sphere (Habermas, 1991). It also examines the emergence, social inclusion and the political use of web participatory spaces - such as blogs, forums and social networks, in this society. Also, we explore the process of mediation, as is carried outside the traditional media in the post-Soviet national public sphere. After applying the different analysis methods of networks (mapping, interviews, participant observation), we can conclude that in contemporary Russia we observe the return to dual model public space: Official "dominant" (consists largely of audio-visual media, papers; magazines, radio stations) and "parallel" (consists of the oppositional political parties, "new" digital media) (Kiriya, 2012). These trends confirm the persistence of forms and configurations of public space in society despite the social and economic changes. In the post-Soviet context, the "new" digital media support the social and political cleavage in. At the same time, these devices contribute to the appearance of new actors of debates and production of information, and the maintenance of the diversity of opinions. Thereby, digital communication devices can be inserted in different social spaces, accompany the liberation and domination practices at the same time. Our work shows that the deployment of digital networks and digital media accompanies the development of the post-Soviet society. They stabilize and make visible the configuration of preexisting actors in different social spaces. This study of political use of digital networks and media in the official public space lead us to adopt a critical view of the "positivist" perception of digital networks as tools of deliberation and argumentative discussions. Thus, the post-Soviet digital space has become a digital extension of the formal domination of public space while ensuring the appropriation of state propaganda speeches and their penetration into the private area. This work shows that the social use (Miège, 2007) and policy of these tools in Russian society is quite conservative and does not contribute to the liberation and democratization of society. Quite the contrary, these devices are used to reproduce the dominant political divide public space and so on. The debates and mobilizations on the Internet have slightly contributed to the emancipation and social change. Inserted into existing national social fields, these digital media has led to the deliberation and control of violence. At the same time, they could be mobilized by the dominant players in order to establish their domination and violence. In the post-Soviet context, digital technologies have contributed to the decline of the political opposition mobilization, reinforcing the isolation of political actors, excluded from the public space, and profitable social control for current Russian authorities. The "spontaneous" social movement is performed according to the historically pre-existing forms protesters (Cabedoche Bertrand, 2010) and our study of post-Soviet case fully confirms it.