“Ideology and simultaneously more than mere ideology”: On Habermas’ reflections and hypotheses on a further structural transformation of the political public sphere

Authorship and individualization in the digital public sphere

Being a master of metaphors

Interview with Martin Jay

This study reviewed the theoretical assumptions and empirical study evidence of pragmatics and the significance of incorporating pragmatic instruction (PI) in EFL/L2 to learners’ communicative competence (CC) development. Research indicates that communicative language teaching (CLT) has faced challenges of theoretical assumptions that were primarily intended to teach English-asa-second-language (ESL) learners but not for EFL learners and practical classroom implementation difficulties since its inception in improving EFL/L2 learners’ CC. Conversely, pragmatists advocate the incorporation of PI in EFL/l2 to target language (TL) learners’ CC development. Informed by studies of pragmatists; the present study reviewed the significance of incorporating the explicit and implicit approaches of PI in EFL/L2 on learners’ CC development. The study implemented a meta-analysis to assess the significance of PI in improving TL learners’ CC. The findings of the review revealed that both the explicit and implicit approaches of PI improve TL learners’ CC while most explicit groups significantly outperformed their implicit counterparts. Only one study of the reviewed articles revealed that the implicit instruction was not effective. Finally, the findings of this study were in agreement with the theoretical assumptions and previous study findings of PI and its positive significance on EFL/ L2 learners’ CC development. The findings also imply that incorporating PI in EFL/L2 familiarises educators, researchers, curriculum developers and material writers with the ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what’ of pragmatics.

The recent decades more than anything else have revealed the ambivalence not only of the articulated expectations about the digital public sphere but also of the ‘real’ development itself. This thematic issue of <em>Media and Communication</em> highlights some of the criticalities and specificities of the evolution of the public sphere during this period where digital communication ecosystems are becoming increasingly central. The different articles offer a polyphonic perspective and thus contribute significantly to the debate on the transformations of the public sphere, which—in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic—dramatically affect the very essence of our democracy.

Through a complex web of technological innovations, social and political changes, and market forces over the last century, we have witnessed vast changes in the arrangement and environments of public and private space. Douglas Kellner observes that "a media culture has emerged in which images, sounds, and spectacles help produce the fabric of everyday life, dominating leisure time, shaping political views and social behavior, and providing the materials out of which people forge their very identities" (Media Culture, 1). The introduction of visual media such as television and personal computers, as well as the popularization of the internet over the last two decades, has brought about major shifts in our conception of the public sphere. Most notable is the transformation, outlined by Jurgen Habermas, from the bourgeois public sphere to a public sphere marked and shaped by mass media and spectacle. Ideally, Habermas' bourgeois public sphere is structured as a social space in which private citizens may assemble to discuss, debate, and come to consensus in order to mediate between the state and civil society. According to Habermas, however, this ideal has been brought to its demise largely because of the influence of the mass media. Habermas' ideal public sphere rests on notions of consensus brought about by rational debate which has been replaced by consumption and uncritical reception. He concludes that the "world fashioned by the mass media is a public sphere in appearance only" (Structural Transformation 171).

Through a complex web of technological innovations, social and political changes, and market forces over the last century, we have witnessed vast changes in the arrangement and environments of public and private space. Douglas Kellner observes that "a media culture has emerged in which images, sounds, and spectacles help produce the fabric of everyday life, dominating leisure time, shaping political views and social behavior, and providing the materials out of which people forge their very identities" (Media Culture, 1). The introduction of visual media such as television and personal computers, as well as the popularization of the internet over the last two decades, has brought about major shifts in our conception of the public sphere. Most notable is the transformation, outlined by Jurgen Habermas, from the bourgeois public sphere to a public sphere marked and shaped by mass media and spectacle. Ideally, Habermas' bourgeois public sphere is structured as a social space in which private citizens may assemble to discuss, debate, and come to consensus in order to mediate between the state and civil society. According to Habermas, however, this ideal has been brought to its demise largely because of the influence of the mass media. Habermas' ideal public sphere rests on notions of consensus brought about by rational debate which has been replaced by consumption and uncritical reception. He concludes that the "world fashioned by the mass media is a public sphere in appearance only" (Structural Transformation 171).

Deliberative democracy and the digital public sphere: Asymmetrical fragmentation as a political not a technological problem

Part 1 Introduction - preliminary demarcation of a type of Bourgeois Public Sphere: the initial question remarks on the type representative publicness on the genesis of the Bourgois Public Sphere. Part 2 Social structures of the Public Sphere: the basic blueprint institutions of the public sphere the Bourgois family and the institutionalization of a privateness oriented to an audience the public sphere in the world of letters in relation to the public sphere in the political realm. Part 3 Political functions of the public sphere: the model case of British development the continental variants civil society as the sphere of private autonomy: private law and a liberalized market the contradictory institutionalization of the public sphere in the Bourgeois constitutional state. Part 4 The bourgeois public sphere - idea and ideology: publicity as the bridging principle between politics and morality, Kant on the dialectic of the public sphere, Hegel and Marx the ambivalent view of the public sphere in the theory of liberalism, John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville. Part 5 The social-structural transformation of the public sphere: the tendency toward a mutual infiltration of public and private spheres the polarization of the social sphere and the intimate sphere from a culture-debating (kulturrasonierend) public to a culture-consuming public the blurred blueprint - developmental pathways in the disintegration of the bourgeois public sphere. Part 6 the transformation of the public sphere's political function: from the journalism of private men of letters to the public consumer services of the mass media - the public sphere as a platform for advertising the transmitted function of the principle of publicity manufactured publicity and nonpublic opinions - the voting behaviour of the population the political public sphere and the transformation of the liberal constitutional state into a social-welfare state. Part 7 On the concept of public opinion: public opinion as a fiction of constitutional law-and the social-psychological liquidation of the concept a sociological attempt at clarification.

In contemporary political, cultural and communicational debates, the idea of the public sphere has a notable presence. According to the classical Habermasian perspective, the public sphere is the realm of social life in which public opinion can be shaped by principles such as free access for all citizens, inclusion, reciprocity, reflection, equality and the rational justification of arguments. In this domain, people act as public when they discuss topics of general interest in conditions of equality and without coercion. These conditions guarantee, in normative terms, that the citizens can meet freely to express their opinions and points of view (Habermas, 1989). Nancy Fraser defends the influence of public discussions on decision-making and believes that the formation of public opinion can be a counterweight to discourses in formal deliberative arenas. He adds that sometimes the arguments put forward by civil society actors succeed in influencing the decisions of executive and legislative powers (Fraser, 1993). Reinforcing that idea, Avritzer and Costa (2004) argue that issues, positions and arguments defended by the new social actors must infiltrate the State through institutional mechanisms, and thus democratize and put it under the control of citizens. However, not all real public spheres are democratic, since cultural and material inequalities determine the differentiation between publics and their capacities, especially in spaces characterized by dependency relations and state interference (Chaguaceda, 2011). It has been pointed out that a merely conversational public sphere will not succeed in subverting power relations or guaranteeing the pursuit of the common good. The Habermasian model has also been criticized because it is confined to the analysis of the bourgeois public sphere and ignores that, together with the formation of the dominant bourgeois public, they suggested that the publics were composed of peasants, workers, women and nationalists, who constituted competing public spheres (Fraser, 1993) and complement each other. Therefore, one should not speak of sphere (singular) but of public (plural) spheres that together form the public space.In later texts, Habermas admits the coexistence of various public spheres and the need to observe the dynamics of the communicative processes that occur outside the dominant spaces of discussion. Now the public sphere is defined as a complex network formed by a diversity of forums for public discussion - both in formal institutions and outside of these, articulated through communicative activity, when different publics come together in organized networks to debate topics of common interest, contrasting points of view and assuming or reaffirming positions (Marques, 2008). Whatever position one takes within that debate, the notion of the public sphere reveals its value not only for critical social theory and democratic practice, but also for understanding the limits of democracy within existing capitalism and for the construction of alternative democratic projects (Fraser, 1993), both to the present neoliberal order and to socialist experiences of Soviet court. However, the Habermasian theory did not propose a universal law applicable to any context: it is a normative model to which existing societies approach or not. As has been stated (Chaguaceda, 2011), the concept must be anchored in specific contexts and subjects, given that the analysis of the public sphere in concrete spaces shows its normative limits. Limits appear when one analyses some countries, such as Cuba, that are not governed by the principles of liberal democracy, such as Cuba.

IntroductionCritical theories, such as Critical Race Theory, are a group of theories developed to explicate structural, historical, and social issues that perpetuate inequities and might inform institutional efforts. This study reviewed critical theory use in health professions education with the primary objectives of understanding how and to what extent these theories have been applied.MethodsA rapid review was performed in October 2021 with four electronic databases. Scholarship was screened with Covidence based on inclusion (critical theory and health professions education) and exclusion (gray literature, not written in English, not critical theory, not education setting, not peer reviewed) criteria. Data were extracted, charted, and analyzed by three reviewers through Excel, with findings reviewed by the entire research team.ResultsA total of 154 pieces of scholarship were included. Most scholarship emerged between 2010 and 2019 (n = 69, 44.8%) and nursing (n = 93, 54.4%) was most represented. Scholars were most frequently from the United States (n = 62, 35.6%), used theoretical methodologies (n = 84, 50.3%), and leveraged Critical & Critical Social Theory (n = 67, 30.7%). In scholarship with major theory use (n = 52, 33.8%), scholars also most commonly used Critical Theory & Critical Social Theory (n = 25, 34.2%).ConclusionsThis review exposed gaps in the use of critical theory in health professions education. Scholars should consider expanding the application of critical theories, additional research methodologies, and aspects of education that were largely absent. Expanding critical theory to further explicate aspects of training programs and institutions could deepen our understanding of the mechanisms impacting student development and success in health professions.

Introduction. The forced switching of universities to distance learning required a change in approaches, technologies and teaching methods. Learning a foreign language is impossible without the practice of oral communication: for the most part, it is in the process of it that the development of communicative competence takes place. We tried not only to bring the new-format learning closer to learning in the traditional format, but also, to a certain extent, to expand the educational potential for the formation of communicative competence through the maximum possible involvement of online learning resources and a well-designed methodological organization. The purpose of the article: to describe the pedagogical technology of the optimal use of online learning resources for the development of students' communicative competence, to evaluate its effectiveness. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study was a competence-based approach to teaching a foreign language. The work in the experimental group of students of Tula State University, studying in the section of Linguistics, was aimed at the optimal use of online learning resources for the development of students' communicative competence in its four components: language, speech, socio-cultural, motivational-reflexive. In the process of the study, methods of theoretical knowledge were used: analysis, synthesis, generalization, as well as methods of empirical knowledge: questioning, interviewing, the method of pedagogical observation, the method of expert evaluation, the method of mathematical data processing. Results of the study. At the end of the work carried out in the experimental group, an increase in the indicators of the formation of the components of communicative competence was recorded: in regard to the language component t-statistic = 8.3 (p < 0,001), the speech component t-statistic = 6.7 (p < 0,001), the socio-cultural component t-statistic = 5.4 (p < 0,001). Discussion and conclusion. The efficiency of the technology was proven through comparative diagnostics of the formation of the components of communicative competence among students before the start of the experimental work and at the end of it. In the distance format, there are opportunities for the effective implementation of the didactic principles of individualization, differentiation of learning. There are sources for increasing of students’ motivation to learn a foreign language, for activating their cognitive interest and developing skills of self-control, self-correction.

It has been stressed that formation of communicative skills in heads of forensic science institutions is a relevant psychological and managerial task. Resolving this issue is of paramount importance not only for an individual forensic science institution and judicial system but also for society as a whole. The Article Aim is theoretical and methodological substantiation of primary aspects for formation and development of communicative competence in heads of forensic science institutions as components of their professional development in managerial activities. In forensic expert activity communicative competence is understood as “a system that includes psychological and social knowledge about oneself and others, skills and abilities in communication, behavioral strategies for diverse social and public situations, which enable an individual to build interpersonal communication according to a goal and conditions of forensic expert activity.” It has been observed that when developing communicative competence in heads of forensic institutions, a pivotal role is held by understanding communication process and the ability to organize it with minimal costs and maximum results. Components and stages of communicative process are outlined, and it is emphasized that neglecting feedback can undermine the entire communication process. Emphasis is placed on the need to avoid “noise” during communication. It has been determined that the current approach to addressing development and improvement of communicative competence in heads of forensic science institutions lies in viewing training as self-development and self-improvement, and diagnostics as self-diagnosis or self-analysis. Measures that will contribute to strengthening communicative preparation of forensic institution heads, and certain shortcomings in the training practice of institution heads concerning the development of communicative competence have been identified. Advantages of high communicative competence among heads of forensic science institutions have been highlighted. Relying on the analysis of research papers and practical activities, a set of measures has been established to optimize formation and development of communicative competence in heads of forensic science institutions.

SPEP Co-director's Address: Progress, Philosophical and Otherwise

Wilde’s Evenings: The Rewards of Citizen Journalism