The Role of Public Intellectual in the Era of Culture Wars and Cancel Culture
2:00pm - 4:00pm /
Monday 27th October 2025
/ Venue: Lecture Theatre Ashton Building
Type: Seminar /
Category: Department
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- Admission: Free Admission
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The Liverpool Sociological Research Cluster of the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology are pleased to invite you to our next event. We are honoured to host 3 eminent and engaging speakers who will address an urgent topic with much contemporary relevance for those engaged in ongoing debates about the role of the public intellectual within and beyond universities. This event will involve the launch of Professor Sari Hanafi's new book (Against Symbolic Liberalism - A Plea for Dialogical Sociology - Published by Liverpool University Press in September 2025). Prof Hanafi will deliver a short presentation and we will be joined by Professor Fouad Fouad and Dr Simin Fadaee who will act as discussants. This promises to be a landmark event with far-reaching consequences for those interested in social theory, inequalities, and activism.
All are welcome to attend.
Summary of book
In an era of deepening polarization, Sari Hanafi examines how social scientists often reproduce the very injustices they seek to challenge, taking entrenched positions while dismissing alternative perspectives. He introduces the concept of symbolic liberalism – a contradiction in which individuals espouse classical liberal principles, yet act in politically illiberal ways. This, he argues, has exacerbated the pathologies of late modernity: authoritarianism, economic precarity and environmental destruction, now all unfolding in a climate where reasonable debate seems increasingly impossible. Examining key flashpoints of contemporary polarization, Hanafi critiques how symbolic liberalism inflates the universality of rights while simultaneously narrowing the space for dialogue. Rather than this rigid ideological stance, he calls for a dialogical turn, a renewed public sphere where diverse conceptions of the “(common) good” engage in genuine conversation. Blending political and moral philosophy with sociological critique, Hanafi offers a path forward in an age when intellectual exchange is more necessary, yet also more imperiled, than ever. Against Symbolic Liberalism is not just a critique of polarization but a critical and impassioned call to reclaim meaningful intellectual discourse.
All are welcome to attend.
Summary of book
In an era of deepening polarization, Sari Hanafi examines how social scientists often reproduce the very injustices they seek to challenge, taking entrenched positions while dismissing alternative perspectives. He introduces the concept of symbolic liberalism – a contradiction in which individuals espouse classical liberal principles, yet act in politically illiberal ways. This, he argues, has exacerbated the pathologies of late modernity: authoritarianism, economic precarity and environmental destruction, now all unfolding in a climate where reasonable debate seems increasingly impossible. Examining key flashpoints of contemporary polarization, Hanafi critiques how symbolic liberalism inflates the universality of rights while simultaneously narrowing the space for dialogue. Rather than this rigid ideological stance, he calls for a dialogical turn, a renewed public sphere where diverse conceptions of the “(common) good” engage in genuine conversation. Blending political and moral philosophy with sociological critique, Hanafi offers a path forward in an age when intellectual exchange is more necessary, yet also more imperiled, than ever. Against Symbolic Liberalism is not just a critique of polarization but a critical and impassioned call to reclaim meaningful intellectual discourse.