Revisiting Habermas' Public Sphere: Welcome to the Virtual Sphere

China Media Research, 2024

Since the mid-1960s, public sphere studies have received increasing attention; because of the theoretical contribution of the German academic researcher Jürgen Habermas, who traced the history of the emergence of the public sphere in Europe in the modern era. The main dimension of Habermas' contribution was related to the nature of the communicational public sphere, as distinct from the political sphere, and from the civil sphere where relations based on mutual interest and trust. So, this contribution sought to identify the public sphere theory in public space; to monitor the structure of this space and its functions, and the role it played in understanding the issues of the contemporary world.

European Journal of Social Theory, 2001

Given powerful globalizing processes under way, the topic of how to conceptualize the modern public sphere is becoming increasingly urgent. Amidst the array of alternatives, the efforts of Jürgen Habermas to attempt to balance out the two main conceptual requirements of this idea, a universalistic construction of the principle of shared interests and a sensitivity to the fact of modern pluralism, might seem a particularly promising option. In order to reconstruct the main motivations of, and to determine a set of criteria of assessment for, Habermas's ongoing attempt to outline a theory of the public sphere adequate to the conditions of the present, the article turns first to a discussion of the seminal formulations of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. I suggest that the later writings are only partially successful in their attempt to redress some of the main conceptual difficulties that emerge in this early account.

The American Sociologist, 2009

This study is embedded in Jürgen Habermas’s theory of the public sphere and its transformation in the twenty-first century. This study aims to show that the public sphere is a concept that is relevant in today’s society. With the developments in the media plane particularly in the present century, the concept shows that it can transcend its traditional limits and can be understood in another context. This study mainly utilizes the method of textual analysis and exposition in further understanding the evolution, decline and transformation of the public sphere. The first chapter contains the usual introductory part. It serves as the preface to the main discussion of the study. The second chapter is a discussion of the evolution and rise of the public sphere theory in the eighteenth-century particularly in European societies. These historical underpinnings serve as the basis of the theory. The third chapter is a discussion of the decline of the public sphere brought about by socio-political changes in the nineteenth-century. This chapter shows that the public sphere has disintegrated mainly due to the citizens’ loss of critical attitude and the manipulation that occurred in the public sphere’s medium. The fourth chapter dwells with the new configurations of the public sphere in the twenty-first century brought about by the rise of different information technologies. Lastly, the fifth chapter contains the summary and conclusion of the study. This study concludes that with the rise of different information technologies in the present century particularly with the rise of the Internet, the concept of the public sphere has not only revived but it has also been transformed as well. The study implies that the developments in the media plane can benefit the society but only through the efforts of the society as a whole as well as with the help of citizens who continuously engage in fruitful dialogue and meaningful debate. Keywords: Bourgeois, Bourgeois Constitutional State, Literary Public Sphere, Political Public Sphere, Press, Public Sphere, Rational - Critical Debate, Representative publicity, Refeudalization

Global Journal of Human Social Science Research, 2012

Though Habermas model of public sphere was framed for describing the public and sphere at the state-level however, its principles and mechanisms are postulated as relevant to the theory and practices of global public sphere (GPS) and global civil society (GCS). The emerging digital technologies and particularly global connectivity through Internet and social networking have added new dimensions to the existing GPS thereby generating a new public sphere (NPS). The determinants of NPS like globalization, social software etc. do not seem to stand against the Habermas view of public sphere rather stand supportive and enhancing to the principles and requirements of an ideal public sphere both at the national and global levels. This paper unfolds this issue at length by juxtaposing the research findings from the existing research.

Habermas and the public sphere I edited by Craig Calhoun. Thomas McCarthy p. cm.-(Studies in contemporary German social thought) Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Philosophica. Ethica-Aesthetica-Practica, 2019

The paper argues that the original normativity that provides the basis for Habermas’s model of the public sphere remains untouched at its core, despite having undergone some corrective alterations since the time of its first unveiling in the 1960s. This normative core is derived from two individual claims, historically articulated in the eighteenth-century’s “golden age” of reason and liberty as both sacred and self-evident: (1) the individual right to an unrestrained disposal of one’s private property; and (2) the individual right to formulate one’s opinion in the course of public debate. Habermas perceives the public sphere anchored to these two fundamental freedoms/rights as an arena of interactive opinion exchange with the capacity to solidly and reliably generate sound reason and public rationality. Despite its historical and cultural attachments to the bourgeois culture as its classical setting, Habermas’s model of the public sphere, due to its universal normativity, maintains...

I take a look at Habermas idea of the "Public Sphere" from multiple angles. Including from a national perspective taking into account New Zealand politics.

2011

The main purpose of this paper is to examine Habermas's account of the transformation of the public sphere in modern society. More specifically, the study aims to demonstrate that, whilst Habermas's approach succeeds in offering useful insights into the structural transformation of the public sphere in the early modern period, it does not provide an adequate theoretical framework for understanding the structural transformation of public spheres in late modern societies. To the extent that the gradual differentiation of social life manifests itself in the proliferation of multiple public spheres, a critical theory of public normativity needs to confront the challenges posed by the material and ideological complexity of late modernity in order to account for the polycentric nature of advanced societies. With the aim of showing this, the paper is divided into three sections. The first section elucidates the sociological meaning of the public/private dichotomy. The second section scrutinizes the key features of Habermas's theory of the public sphere by reflecting on (i) the concept of the public sphere, (ii) the normative specificity of the bourgeois public sphere, and (iii) the structural transformation of the public sphere in modern society. The third section explores the most substantial shortcomings of Habermas's theory of the public sphere, particularly its inability to explain the historical emergence and political function of differentiated public spheres in advanced societies.