Habermasian Public Sphere Research Articles

Why Do Religious Ideas Matter? The Multidimensionality of the Indonesian Public Sphere

In this paper, I challenge the claim of the universalistic public sphere by providing contextual complexity of the national and local public sphere in Indonesia. In the original version of the Habermasian public sphere, people sat together in the salon and the café to exchange their ideas, sustaining the secular, capitalistic, and individualistic public sphere. However, further critics have shown the problems of putting secular ideas as the central force of the public sphere, particularly as it overlooks the complexity of the public sphere in religious contexts. These critics are particularly relevant to understanding the Indonesian public sphere in which the Muslim-majority population aims to dominate public life, as the religiously motivated political agenda has a further consequence for democratisation in Indonesia, which has been heralded as a prime example of harmony between Islamic values and Western democracy. At the same time, digitalisation has facilitated a religious revival in the national public sphere, combining religious sentiment within a highly individualised and digitalised society. This paper analyses the challenges of the digital divide in the local public sphere of pondok pesantren (Indonesian Islamic boarding schools). With a lack of digital access and democratic practices in day-to-day pondok pesantren life, communalistic religious practices have dominated the public sphere of these boarding schools. Within such complexity, this paper deliberates on how the local and national contexts in Indonesia shed light on the multidimensionality of the public sphere.

Transnacionalização da justiça em Nancy Fraser

Based on the analysis of the theoretical-social assumptions that link Habermas' initial conception of the public sphere to the Westphalian framework of public space, Nancy Fraser proposes the need for restructuring the public sphere based on a transnational framework, given the existence of discursive arenas that go beyond the limits of the Nation State, with a strong influence on social reality. In this context, Fraser emphasizes that the concept of public sphere was developed not only to understand communication flows, but also to contribute to a normative political theory of democracy. In this theory, a public sphere is conceived as a space for the communicative generation of public opinion. Aiming to guarantee that the process is inclusive and fair, publicity should discredit views that cannot withstand critical scrutiny, for the purpose of ensuring the legitimacy of those who participate in the process. Therefore, it matters who participates and under what conditions. In these terms, two ideas are central to the analysis of the public sphere: normative legitimacy and the political effectiveness of public opinion. The absence of these elements renders the concept empty of critique and political action, according to Fraser. Therefore, the author seeks to rethink the Habermasian public sphere theory, which is implicitly guided by a Westphalian political imaginary, a vision that no longer corresponds to contemporary globalized reality.

Transnacionalização da justiça em Nancy Fraser

Based on the analysis of the theoretical-social assumptions that link Habermas' initial conception of the public sphere to the Westphalian framework of public space, Nancy Fraser proposes the need for restructuring the public sphere based on a transnational framework, given the existence of discursive arenas that go beyond the limits of the Nation State, with a strong influence on social reality. In this context, Fraser emphasizes that the concept of public sphere was developed not only to understand communication flows, but also to contribute to a normative political theory of democracy. In this theory, a public sphere is conceived as a space for the communicative generation of public opinion. Aiming to guarantee that the process is inclusive and fair, publicity should discredit views that cannot withstand critical scrutiny, for the purpose of ensuring the legitimacy of those who participate in the process. Therefore, it matters who participates and under what conditions. In these terms, two ideas are central to the analysis of the public sphere: normative legitimacy and the political effectiveness of public opinion. The absence of these elements renders the concept empty of critique and political action, according to Fraser. Therefore, the author seeks to rethink the Habermasian public sphere theory, which is implicitly guided by a Westphalian political imaginary, a vision that no longer corresponds to contemporary globalized reality.

SPECIAL REPORT: The world according to China: Capturing and analysing the global media influence strategies of a superpower

This project captured and analysed Chinese strategies seeking to influence global media in its coverage of China. While there is ample literature defining some of these strategies, there is a lack of empirical data tracking the strategies in practice. The project addressed this by surveying officials from journalism unions in 87 countries on their perceptions of Chinese influence on the media in their country. The surveys were complemented by focus groups with senior journalists and editors in six countries. The findings illustrated how China’s global media outreach policies have grown increasingly sophisticated and how the country utilises a multi-pronged approach to influence global media. Dukalskis’ (2017) authoritarian public sphere (APS) framework was used to conceptualise the studies and to analyse the findings. It is argued that China is attempting to offer its APS as an alternative to the traditional Habermasian (1989) public sphere.

The public sphere and contemporary lifeworld: reconstruction in the context of systemic crises

Abstract For the Habermasian theory of the “public sphere” to make sense in the 2020s, it must be able to address the modern tendency toward global systemic crises. To examine the relevance of the Habermasian public sphere to today’s deeply interconnected digital world, this article provides a selective reading of Habermas’ writings on the public sphere, examining how he developed the concept from its conceptual core (1962) through his Legitimation Crisis (LC; 1973) and The Theory of Communicative Action (TCA; vol. 1 [1981] 1984, vol. 2 [1981] 1987). Working from the perspective of the “differentiated lifeworld,” we show here that the theory’s background assumptions about reality (truth), solidarity (justice), personality (authenticity) are now being exposed and destabilized by current crisis tendencies and imaginaries. Here, we examine three exemplary (and interconnected) global disruptions that expose these assumptions: the climate crisis, the intensification of financial inequality in the Global North, and the rapid push toward datafication. Through our examination of whether the public sphere as Habermas conceived of it can exist in today’s world, we provide a more expansive form of criticism of the public sphere (which is usually critiqued on the narrow grounds of the rational bias of communicative rationality). Here, we underscore the fundamental importance of addressing the complex system-lifeworld dynamics that are today re-conceptualizing and re-contextualizing the “public sphere” in this era of contemporary global crises.

Invasion as Trespassing Spatial Boundaries

The surge in domestic violence (DV), akin to a lurking shadow, coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This ‘shadow pandemic’ prompts me to explore the intricate interplay of spatial dynamics between DV and the COVID-19 containment measures. Mirroring the spatial patterns seen in DV, the pandemic restrictions too encompass physical and social isolation in cramped living spaces, as well as exclusion from the public sphere. In this contribution, through my engagement with the Foucauldian concept of the ‘political dream’ in a plague-stricken town, I put forth an account of ‘invasion’ as an audacious act of trespassing boundaries, particularly the transgression of citizens’ privacy during lockdowns. This concept of invasion, I argue, entwined with and starkly juxtaposed against the passive ‘non-invasion’ of DV victims in the guise of marital privacy rhetoric, leaves DV victims in a significantly more precarious position in the global epidemic. Unsettling the rigidity of the private/public; personal/political boundaries, Chinese feminists launched ‘Anti-Domestic Violence, Little Vaccine’ campaign during the Wuhan lockdown. It is in my examination of their performative intervention that I propose my second account of ‘invasion’ – invasion as trespassing a prior boundaries. Drawing on Nancy Fraser’s feminist critique of the Habermasian public sphere theory, I delineate that the AVLV campaign is an act of invasion performed on the edges of the fixed spatial, political and legal boundaries, thereby blurring these pre-established lines.

Tweeting television between innovation and normalization: How Lebanese television and audiences are making use of Twitter in political talk shows

Traditional media have progressively integrated newer media practices, with the constant emergence of new digital technologies, without abandoning their former ones. The adoption of Twitter by TV channels and by other social actors during political talk shows is a case in point. This article aims to assess whether the hybridization of TV talk shows and Twitter has innovated or normalized existing patterns of communication. In the former case, by enabling more interaction between different actors and space for audience deliberation, or in the latter case, by reproducing a traditional one-way communication and a centralized network of information that remains controlled and oriented by the elite (journalists and politicians). The incorporation of older and emergent media logic has an impact on the construction and distribution of political information as well as on the power relationships between journalists, politicians, and TV audiences. Besides allowing political talk shows to expand their flow of information, and to promote their news online, hybridized practices have not only altered the way citizens consume and engage with political information but also how they counter-frame traditional political media content by producing new ones. The research methodology consists of descriptive, content, and network analyses of tweets collected from three Lebanese local TV political talk show “Sarelwa2et” (MTV), “Btefro’ aa Watan” (Al Jadeed), and “Vision 2030” (LBCI) between February and March 2022. Results revealed that TV talk shows are making use of Twitter as a top-down transmitter of information and resorting poorly to its interactive potential. Some newer media practices of Twitter, such as @mention and replies are being applied but only to interact with politicians and journalists, failing to engage with a larger array of voices and thus, leading to an elite-centric discourse within the network. Also, tweets are mostly used to inform audiences and promote TV programs. In addition, network analyses of talk shows via hashtags demonstrated the central and not monopolized role of politicians and journalists as influencers, bridges, and quick spreaders of information. Finally, content analysis of dual screeners’ tweets (n=6000) indicated very little space in a Habermasian public sphere. The total of subjective opinions, irony, and attack/insult tweets are still higher than the total of the introduction of new issues and counter-frames tweets.

Reimagining the Public Sphere: Commensurability and Communicative Rationality under Colonialism

AbstractThis article discusses the Habermasian public sphere as a realm constructed through communication and offers a critique of Jürgen Habermas's concept of an intersubjectively shared lifeworld among the participants as a fundamental prerequisite for communicative rationality in the discursive field. The article contends that the emergence of communicative rationality in the public sphere is unlikely to be facilitated by a singular and unitary modern public whose participants have commensurable languages and worlds. This argument is elaborated through an analysis of a public debate that occurred on August 10, 1888, between the Mahajan (headman) of the Modh Baniya caste council and Mohandas K. Gandhi, a Modh Baniya himself. Even though the discussion involved two people with an intersubjectively shared lifeworld, who were engaged in the deliberation as equals, the dialogue broke down, deepening divides. This article argues that the need to protect the spiritual domain from the polluting touch of the material domain led to the breakdown of communicative rationality.

From Café Culture to Tweets

From Café Culture to Tweets

Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern “Truthiness” and Civic Engagement

Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern “Truthiness” and Civic Engagement

Sweeping the Traces of Habermasian Public Sphere in University Radio Stations: A Research from Turkey

This study focuses on freedom of expression among university radio stations in Turkey. Our aim is to reveal the obstacles university radio stations face in speaking freely and to propose a solution to them. We take our conceptual framework from the Habermasian public sphere and focus on the practice of speaking on the radio. Using a qualitative analysis method, we conducted in-depth interviews with the managers of 34 university radio stations in 21 different cities in Turkey. We found that there are many obstacles to freedom of speech facing university radio stations in Turkey.

From public sphere to magic circle: playful publics on the Chinese internet

This paper reassesses comparisons of online Chinese networks to the Habermasian public sphere through a dialogue between sinology and ludology. Play has long been considered an integral component of public activity and of the Chinese internet. Researchers emphasised the importance of playful behavior and creative self-expressions for various purposes, including the formation of community ties and identities. However, studies tend to scrutinise the socio-political effects of playing rather than the fundamental connections between play and cultural life. This paper investigates the underlying cultural elements of play that are absent from or underdeveloped in the rational-critical framework and discourses of the public sphere. Building upon this ludological tradition, and specifically focusing on the autotelic, contextual, and appropriative nature of play, we conduct an exploratory, inductive thematic analysis of three case studies that garnered significant domestic and international attention – the abolishment of term limits in China, the #MeToo movement, and the COVID-19 pandemic – to understand the role of play in public communication. Our analysis reveals insights into the creative structural dynamics that underpin the Chinese internet – rules, reciprocity, and irrationality – three aspects that broaden discussions of online activity and engagement. The paper centers itself at the nexus of three separate strands of histories – the public sphere debate, ludology, and the Chinese internet – that have rarely been in dialogue with one another and, in doing so, examines and explains the Chinese cybersphere’s current formation.

Satire and The Cambridge Introduction to Satire

Satire and The Cambridge Introduction to Satire

‘Watch my back and I watch yours’: Beyond Habermas’ public sphere concept in democratic and participatory dimensions of pre-colonial Shona society public spaces

Debates on communication media and democracy including in Africa are largely anchored in the western Habermasian public sphere concept. Studies employing indigenous African communication platforms and symbols are scarce, prompting Zimbabwean philosopher Tafataona Mahoso to argue that while Africans have a philosophy, we have become ‘illiterate’ such that we cannot read our constructions and symbols. Thus, this article broadens discussions on participatory communication practices and democratic principles by engaging pre-colonial Zimbabwe communication and solidarity relational philosophies of Dariro and Dare (ubiquitous circle) largely located in traditional Shona societies. The philosophical democratic dimensions of these platforms are discussed in relation to Habermas’ public sphere theory. We show that despite western thought generally regarding the non-West as a place of antiquarian traditions and unprocessed data, pre-colonial indigenous African communication systems were characterized by democratic participation, agency and public contest; at times beyond democratic practices and principles espoused by the Habermasian public sphere.

Sport, Twitter Hashtags, and the Public Sphere: A Qualitative Test of the Phenomenon Through a Curt Schilling Case Study

Popular social media platforms have faced recent criticism because of the tendency for users to exhibit strongly negative behaviors, threatening the open, prodemocratic discourse that proponents believe was made possible when social media sites first gained widespread adoption a decade ago. A conceptual model suggests that the microblogging site Twitter, and especially sport-themed debate through hashtags, can still realize these ideals. Analyzing a dataset of tweets about the firing of former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling by ESPN on April 20, 2016, as well as a qualitative questionnaire given to the users of the hashtag, this study attempted to ascertain how closely the discourse comes to realizing the ideal of the Habermasian public sphere. The findings demonstrate that although users draw value from participation in the discussion, they are less inclined to desire interaction with other hashtag users, particularly those who disagree with them. This suggests that Twitter hashtags provide an open forum that approaches the participatory requirement of the public sphere, but the lack of back-and-forth engagement suggests the medium is not ideal for the generation of deliberative public opinion.

Seventeenth-Century Pamphlets as Constituents of a Public Communications Space: A Historical Critique of Public Sphere Theory

A public sphere in which people can freely discuss worldly affairs is arguably an essential building block of deliberative democracies. As a theoretical and historical concept, however, the public sphere concept is far from unequivocal. This article reviews Habermasian public sphere theory and particularly his failure, according to critics, to establish the ‘bourgeois public sphere’ as an historical category. It provides a more realistic historical account that helps to reframe contemporary conceptions of the public sphere. It argues that the 17th century’s culture of pamphleteering created the space for a proto-public sphere, characterized as a complex network of discursive practices mixing commercial doggerel, state-sponsored propaganda and reasoned argument. These practices were part of contradictory but mutually constitutive processes in the context of religious and political struggles that coincided with the gestation of parliamentary democracy.

Standpoint, Mediation and the Working-Class Public Sphere

Habermasian public sphere theory has been challenged widely and persistently on the basis of its rationalist universalism, which brackets off material concerns in the process of deliberation for an ostensibly common good. Against a relativist tendency in these critiques, I argue here for an alternative, materialist model of radically democratic counterpublicity as a standard for the adjudication of a public’s fidelity to the interests of those it hails. To this end, I draw from Negt and Kluge’s description of proletarian public spheres and Lukács’ theory of mediation to theorise, describe, explain and intervene as political actors in working-class public spheres. We must retain the ability to fathom a concept of publicness tied to a socialist, anti-capitalist political project.

Téléphones mobiles, un domaine public dans la Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée péri-urbaine

In urban Papua New Guinea (png), attitudes about and uses of mobile phones may be construed as a kind of a Habermasian public sphere, albeit one whose moral space and discourse is characteristically Melanesian. That is to say, the notion of “public” is not sharply differentiated either from the state or the private domain. In png, the citizenry assess mobile phone use not to only criticize the legitimacy of the postcolonial state, but also complain about the moral failings of the nation. Meanwhile, as they do so, they make calls for legitimate purposes, purposes that help them attain particularistic goals and assert particularistic values, both old and new.

On virtuality and the aesthetics of spectacle: Nationalist imaginations of Mthwakazi and its passions of semblance

ABSTRACTSocial networking and the individuated privacy of the virtual space have emerged as new forms of communicative platforms, conflating social identities and free speech for most subaltern communities. While it is accepted that the notion of social networking has always existed as part of oramedia (orality) within most African communities, it has gained more positive value from the grapevine as a notch of communication, while current trends in communication, coupled with the rise of new media, have brought normative and pragmatic values to the latter-day communication culture. One social networking group from Matebeleland (a region of historical complexities in Zimbabwe), ‘The Forum’, will be used as a case study to show how the virtual sphere has revolutionised the Habermasian public sphere. New social networking sites enable participants to gather and connect through ‘Internet portals’. We posit that these different fora define the extent to which engagement and free speech are practised, leading to changes in people’s world views. Online fora now range from different Facebook and Whatsapp groups, such as Inhlamba Zesintu, Bring Back Bulawayo, Luveve Ikasi Lami, Abammeli Mthwakazi, Not-Everyone-is-Zimbabwean and Thina AbaMpofu, to websites like iNkundla.net, YouTube and other vibrant platforms created through mailing lists and listserv, such as the Forum.

The playful newsroom: Iterating and reiterating the news and its publics

The crisis in the journalism industry, intensified with the popularization of the World Wide Web, warrants radical rethinking of the professional identity of journalists and their role in society. This paper first suggests replacing the Habermasian public sphere with Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s magic circle of play to describe the relationship between the press and its audience. Within this new model, the writer configures the rules and boundaries in which the reader is free to respond and subvert, an interplay that increasingly shapes both current news production and expectations of the public. This paper then explores play and playful attitudes in newsroom practices and output through semi-structured interviews with journalists, game designers and educators. The “Game Team” at the news and entertainment Web site BuzzFeed acts as a primary case study of a group of journalists who make a variety of playful products — from full-fledged games to interactives — which they iterate and improve over time, in response to readers’ feedback.