Online Public Intellectuals

Abstract

The status and significance of public intellectuals (PIs) continue to be debated. Even if PIs themselves tend to dominate these discussions, we would be foolish to dismiss the issues as merely an expression of vanity among a small coterie, because, as I will argue, PIs still play an important role in democracies. They represent a particular form of political participation, often within the realm of alternative politics, and while there may be in some corners a misguided tendency to dismiss PIs as ‘elitist’, their significance persists, despite changes in their circumstances, activities, and practices. Most of the familiar questions remain and will no doubt continue to be discussed: are PIs in decline or not, in quantitative terms? How should we view the quality of their contributions today? Who is/is not a PI? What are the consequences of their increased academic profile? Who are the audiences for contemporary PIs? In fact, these questions, as we shall see, take on new pertinence with the advent of the web.