30/09/2026
๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐๐ซ: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ: ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ง๐๐ข๐ ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ญ
Liberal democracies are dividedโand increasingly so. Yet precisely what divides them remains a matter of ongoing dispute. According to Hunterโs classic โCulture Warโ thesis, the core cleavage is that between secular modernists and religious traditionalists. Norris and Inglehart, by contrast, stress the split between highly educated, younger post-materialists and less educated, older cultural conservatives. While Goodhart frames the conflict as pitting โAnywhereโ cosmopolitans and โSomewhereโ communitarians. In this presentation I offer a cultural sociological account of the cultural-cum-moral landscape, which integrates and builds upon the insights of these accounts, while at the same time departing from them. I argue the โCulture Warโ that characterizes liberal democracies in the twenty-first century, far from being dualistic, is best conceived as triadic in nature. What is more, many of todayโs most heated cultural conflicts derive less from the clash of incommensurable moral visions, than from a clash of distinct iterations of the selfsame cultural-cum-moral traditionโromantic expressivism. Specifically, I maintain that the fault lines track the differences between a liberal romanticism, a left-wing radical romanticism, and a right-wing reactionary romanticism. Leveraging the tools of cultural sociology, this article seeks to bring to light the remarkable extent to which romantic expressivism suffuses the cultural imaginary of twenty-first century liberal democracies.
About the speaker:
Galen Watts is Assistant Professor in the sociology and legal studies department at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on cultural and institutional change in liberal democracies since the 1960sโwith a focus on the spheres of religion, morality, work, and politics. His first book, The Spiritual Turn: The Religion of the Heart and the Making of Romantic Liberal Modernity, published in 2022 with Oxford University Press, won the 2023 Society for the Scientific Study of Religionโs Distinguished Book Award, as well as an Honorable Mention for the 2023 Best Book Award from the American Sociological Associationโs Section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity. In 2026, he won the Canadian Sociological Associationโs Early Investigator Award. You can find out more about him and his work at his website: www.galenwatts.ca.
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Date: 22 October 2026 (Thursday)
๐ Time: 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
๐ Venue: Room 9.29, 9/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
๐ฃ๏ธ Language: English
๐ https://sociology.hku.hk/events/477952b6-6dd3-446a-8b20-54f1576919d2
HKU Sociology The University of Hong Kong HKU Social Sciences
