Editing Intellectual (section)

=== Public engagement ===
The determining factor for a "thinker" (historian, philosopher, scientist, writer, artist) to be considered a public intellectual is the degree to which the individual is [[logical consequence|implicated]] and [[engaged theory|engaged]] with the vital reality of the contemporary world, i.e. participation in the public affairs of society. Consequently, being designated as a public intellectual is determined by the degree of influence of the designator's [[motivation]]s, opinions, and options of action (social, political, ideological), and by affinity with the given thinker.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

After the failure of the large-scale [[May 68]] movement in France, intellectuals within the country were often maligned for having specific areas of expertise while discussing general subjects like democracy. Intellectuals increasingly claimed to be within marginalized groups rather than their spokespeople, and centered their activism on the social problems relevant to their areas of expertise (such as gender relations in the case of psychologists). A similar shift occurred in China after the [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests|Tiananmen Square Massacre]] from the "universal intellectual" (who plans better futures from within academia) to ''minjian'' ("grassroots") intellectuals, the latter group represented by such figures as [[Wang Xiaobo]], social scientist [[Yu Jianrong]], and ''[[Yanhuang Chunqiu]]'' editor Ding Dong ({{lang|zh|丁東}}).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Béja|first=Jean-Philippe|date=2020|title=Review of Minjian: The Rise of China's Grassroots Intellectuals|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26959862|journal=China Review|volume=20|issue=4|pages=285–287|jstor=26959862|issn=1680-2012}}</ref>