Social Regulation and the Digital Public Space in Cameroon

Abstract

The concept of public space, which had its letter of nobility with Habermas, is at the center of democratic organization. It defines an intermediary space between civil society and the State. However, we cannot speak about such a space today without taking into account the complexity of the digital reality that characterizes it. The development of digital technology has redefined the physical borders between States as well as the relationship between citizenship and territory. The use of digital media has also transformed the modalities of collective action by making new forms of intersubjectivity possible, and more spontaneous and direct forms of participation have also emerged. Through the digital effect, the transformation of public space into digital public space reflects big problems of impoverishment of living together and collective action in Cameroon. This paper goes through the different modes of regulation, not without defining its role as a framework that would make public space a place based on communicative action and ethics. It also attempts to organize new forms of digital sociability and to rebuild living together. A moral education focused on redefining the bases of the social contract extended to all virtual spheres is presented as a way of reintegrating the fundamental principles of living.