Engagements, grammars, and the public: From the liberal grammar to individual interests

Abstract

This article explores the role of individual interests within the pragmatic sociology of engagements expounded by Laurent Thévenot. He developed the idea of multiple regimes of engaging with the world-cognitive models of information-processing and what kind of good is engaged in different situations. In this article I argue that the way the sociology of engagements is currently formulated does not sufficiently allow for analysing public participation and disputes in situations where individual interests play a crucial role in public debates. The article presents a slight reformulation of what Thévenot calls the grammar of individuals in a liberal public (sic), based on a) an understanding of how individual interests relate to the common good and general will, b) the constitution of legitimate actors within polities, and c) the separation between the levels of generality and publicity. This reformulation might be called the grammar of individual interests, clarifying and simplifying earlier terminology .

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“…quantitative participation rates of stakeholders) (Eranti 2018). Participation of stakeholders then ranges from proximate in familiar engagement (not beyond closely affected stakeholders) to preference-based strategic engagement (opt-in participation by relevant stakeholders) to finally, justifiable engagement, as the most general and publicly open format (Brandl et al 2014;Eranti 2018). From this perspective, justifiable engagement has the most potential for inclusiveness, as there is no space for the great majority of details, personal attachments and pure self-interest (Eranti 2018).…”

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“…On the other hand, the particularity of the judgment lays on the fact that the grammar of recognition (HONNETH, 2011) appears equally articulated by both respondents with the liberal grammar as a way of making the common: the rule generalised to all students, codified in the school's regulation of arriving in the classroom on time is reduced, in the argument, to a matter of individual preference or choice (ERANTI, 2018;STAVO-DEBAUGE, 2014). Under the precept that each "to each his own", attending what their respective personal interests are, it is up to each student to make their options -and bearing (exclusively) with the corresponding consequences.…”

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“…Individuals take part in a legitimate dispute, without directly referencing a substantial conception of the common good, but by expressing in a certain format an individual choice. We could talk about a "liberal grammar of individual interests" (Eranti 2017(Eranti , 2018 even though in economic, social, and political sciences, naturalizing this "interest" category prevents identifying the requirements of transformation necessary to this grammar. The act of communication asks for sacrifices that are not apparent when it is mostly the liberty of the individual that is highlighted.…”