Read more
This book explores controversies surrounding free speech and open inquiry (FSOI) in various regions of the Anglophone world. The authors argue that the past decade has seen a noticeable erosion of FSOI across the globe, aided and abetted by university clerisies and state apparatuses. These groups' policing of language and pandering to cancel culture, the authors argue, have narrowed the Overton window to the point of reinvigorating the push for blasphemy law within liberal democracies themselves and impeding certain avenues scientific research. While most books on the subject discuss the American constitutional context of the First Amendment, this book considers free speech in the wider context of other Anglo countries. It also includes scholars from a variety of disciplines whose approaches will not only be ideologically distinct, but demonstrate a diversity of disciplinary approaches and concerns.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 2. The Relationship Between Expressive Rights and Equality.- 3. Free speech and open enquiry in the United Kingdom.- 4. Free speech in Australia: protecting speech without explicit free speech rights.- 5. Free Speech and Open Inquiry in Canada.- 6. Free Speech in the Shadow of a Party-State: Hong Kong and its Public Service Broadcaster.- 7. Diseasing Speech in Britain.- 8. Degradation and Revolution: A Taxonomy of Cancel Culture.- 9. Legal Protections for Employee Speech: Narrower if at All.- 10. Everyday Censorship: What the Data Tell Us About the Threat to Free Speech on Campus.- 11. Why Freedom of Expression Should Reign Supreme in University Life.- 12. The Excesses of Our Successes: Challenges to Free Speech and Open Inquiry on American Campuses.
About the author
Luke C. Sheahan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Duquesne University and a Non-resident Scholar in the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS) at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
