Masses, Classes and the Public SphereMike Hill, Warren Montag Despite the passing of some forty years since the original publication of Jurgen Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, the fundamental concepts that informed the book remain prominent and distinctly influential. So much so that the term ‘public spheres,’ as Habermas introduced it, has today become an ultimately foundational concept for assessing everything from intellectual debate and ‘public access’ criticism, to the function of race, gender, and sexual difference in contemporary civil society. As new demands have been made on the concepts, so people have redefined and extended them, positing the idea of a plurality of ‘counter-public spheres’ (proletarian, bourgeois, feminine, national, global, for instance), and continually addressing the philosophical concept of the public sphere itself. This volume attempts to move beyond these debates to pose fundamental questions about the function and continued relevance of the public sphere today, both politically and practically. A set of distinguished essays, ranging from the philosophical foundations of the Enlightenment to contemporary struggles over civil rights and public policy, seek to highlight the internal conflicts that have marked the progressive development of Habermas’s original concept. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Public in Practice | 8 |
Discourse and Practice | 41 |
Copyright | |
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African American agency Alexander Kluge Anderson's Angeles argues Asian Americans barrio bourgeois public sphere Cambridge capitalism capitalist century Chicago citizens civil society concept constitute contemporary counter-public critical critique cultural studies defined democratic discourse domestic dominant E.P. Thompson Eastside economic eighteenth-century emergence existence experience forces Foucault Fraser freedom Freire Freire's gender global Habermas's Hegel historical Ibid identity ideological imagined individuals institutions interests Jürgen Habermas juridical Kant Katie Sistrunk labor law droit London Marx Marxist Maud Martha MEWC Mexican mobility mode of production modern movement Nancy Fraser Negt and Kluge organization Oskar Negt pedagogy philosophical political practice precisely print-capitalism printing private sphere public housing public sphere radical relations of production relationship Robert Taylor Homes sense separate spheres Smith social space Stow Stow's street Structural Transformation struggle subsumption theory Thompson tion trans union urban women workers York