ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines a sturdy defence of the public intellectual, both as a theoretical concept to explain the processes of the civil-public sphere and as a practical demonstration of the value to society of intellectuals who transcend their specialisms with creativity and civil courage in order to 'speak the truth to power'. As a sociological analysis of the position, status and activities of the public intellectual, the series of cases suggests some interesting conclusions. The 'old' public intellectuals have an intimate relationship to politics, but their styles do not, on the whole, belong to deliberative democracy. The 'new', modern intellectuals are more embedded in the practice of research in an institutional setting. Their contributions to politics are mainly indirect, through the policy process, but their reception is quite discipline-specific.
