The structural transformation of the public sphere: an inquiry into a category of bourgeois society

Jurgen Habermas

MIT Press, 1991 - Philosophy - 301 pages

"The most significant modern work on its subject....Habermas offers perhaps the richest, best developed conceptualization available of the social nature and foundations of public life."
-- Craig J. Calhoun, "Contemporary Sociology" This is Jü rgen Habermas's most concrete historical-sociological book and one of the key contributions to political thought in the postwar period. It will be a revelation to those who have known Habermas only through his theoretical writing to find his later interests in problems of legitimation and communication foreshadowed in this lucid study of the origins, nature, and evolution of public opinion in democratic societies.

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Review: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society

User Review  - Eddy Allen - Goodreads

"The most significant modern work on its subject....Habermas offers perhaps the richest, best developed conceptualization available of the social nature and foundations of public life." -- Craig J ...

Review: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society

User Review  - Andrew - Goodreads

Habermas, you're a helluva humanist thinker. I can't complain about the man's motives-- this is the sort of qualitative commentary that stands on its own merits rather than feeling like the ...

Contents

• Preliminary Demarcation of: 1
• On the Genesis of the Bourgeois Public Sphere: 14
• Contents: 20
• Social Structures of the Public Sphere: 27
• to: 31
• The Bourgeois Family and: 43
• The Public Sphere in the World of Letters: 51
• Political Functions of the Public Sphere: 57
• Path: 58
• Civil Society as the Sphere of Private: 73
• Idea: 89
• Publicity as the Bridging Principle between: 102
• On the Dialectic of the Public Sphere Hegel: 117
• The SocialStructural Transformation of: 141
• From a CultureDebating kulturrasonierend: 159
• Developmental: 175
• The Transformation of the Public Spheres: 181
• The Transmuted Function of the Principle: 196
• On the Concept of Public Opinion: 236
• Notes: 251
• Index: 299

Popular passages

Page 301 - Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society Hans Joas, GH Mead: A Contemporary Re-examination of His Thought Reinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society Reinhart Koselleck, Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time Harry Liebersohn, Fate and Utopia in German Sociology, 1887—1923 Herbert Marcuse, Hegel's Ontology and the Theory‎

About the author

Jurgen Habermas is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt and Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He was recently awarded the 2004 Kyoto Prize for Arts and Philosophy by the Inamori Foundation. The Kyoto Prize is an international award to honor those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural, and spiritual betterment of mankind.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The structural transformation of the public sphere: an inquiry into a category of bourgeois society; Studies in contemporary German social thought: Philosophy
• Author: Jurgen Habermas
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: MIT Press, 1991
• ISBN: 0262581086, 9780262581080
• Length: 301 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / General; Social Science / Sociology / General