Habermas's Theory Research Articles

You Can’t Take It with You

Contemporary democratic theory, in its focus on the distinction between a private and a public sphere, tends to exclude emotions from political life. Arendt, Habermas, and Angus present critical theories of politi­cal action and deliberation that demand that emotions be left behind in favour of a narrower rationality. On the basis of a first step toward incorporating emotions into political life as accomplished by Martha Nussbaum – despite its limitations – and of a second step taken by Sara Ahmed, an outline of a theory of emotions becomes possible, and brings into question the distinction between private and public life. Emotions act as motivations that accompany every instance of participation or for non-participation, be it because of apathy or of disengagement.

The promise and potential of transgovernmental cooperation on the international data privacy agenda: Communicative action, deliberative capacity and their limits

One of the great oxymorons and paradoxes of information technology regulation is that the governance of data privacy around the world to a large extent occurs through transgovernmental cooperation by data privacy commissioners; however, it has hardly received any attention among legal or political science scholars. Despite an increasingly prominent role that data privacy is gaining on an inter-governmental level and the United Nations agenda, an international community still struggles to find ways to cooperate over data privacy regulation. This paper aims to contribute to the international data privacy discourse by analysing data privacy authorities' (‘DPAs’) prospects to influence the international data privacy agenda and cooperation. The article aims to build upon and go beyond the existing descriptive narratives of the DPAs' functions and networks by applying the theoretical framework of the transgovernmental networks and Habermas theory of communicative action to data privacy to examine the potential and limits of the transgovernmental cooperation among the DPAs beyond European level which has not been analysed yet in legal or political science scholarship. The paper argues that while the transgovernmental cooperation by data privacy authorities represents a significant governance alternative to the more conventional inter-governmental cooperation, it is questionable whether that is sufficient to de facto alter the cooperative stalemate between the EU and USA and change the regulatory landscape in data privacy governance on an international level. While the hopes for data privacy commissioners could be high, the experience in other issue-areas, even the ones that are considered very ‘successful’ examples of transgovernmental cooperation, such as the Basel Committee, International Organization of Securities Commissions, and International Competition Network, requires some caution. This is so given that many of the factors impeding cooperation in other areas, including incompatible regulatory philosophies, politicisation of issues, the limited ability of regulatory cooperation to bind other governmental actors, and the presence of distributive conflicts, appear to be present in the area of data privacy as well. Thus, the paper concludes that aspirations that the data privacy authorities may, in the words of Anne-Marie Slaughter, create ‘a genuinely new set of possibilities’ for a future governance of data privacy where deliberation takes over and eliminates the power disparities and national interests are likely to remain elusive at least in the nearest future.

Critical Management Studies and public administration: Reinterpreting democratic governance using critical theory and poststructuralism

AbstractIn this article we present the schools of thought comprising Critical Management Studies (CMS), explore their implications for public administration, and provide an alternate definition of democratic governance. We synthesize and describe the “modern stream,” inspired by the Frankfurt School, and the “postmodern stream,” associated with poststructuralist authors. Despite significant epistemological and ontological differences, these perspectives complement each other and cast new light on democratic governance. We present the respective theories of Foucault and Habermas, explore their implications for public administration, reconcile their views on power as a basis for a normative definition for so‐called good governance, and redefine the concept of “democratic governance.”

Memory Transmission and Political Socialization in Post-Socialist Hungary

This article examines and critically evaluates the processes of institutional memory transmission and political formation in post-socialist Hungary utilizing the critical theories of Habermas, Giddens and Bourdieu. In the first part of the article, a discourse analysis of the public debates about two distinctive ‘lieux de memoires’ – the House of Terror and the Holocaust Memorial Center – is elaborated. The concept of ‘memory vacuum’ is introduced to express the lack of minimal consensus between political actors about distinctive 20th-century Hungarian political traumas: the Holocaust and state socialist terror. In the second part of the article, focus groups conducted with high school visitors (n = 49) to these museums are analysed to explore the relationship between their interpretations of the past and evaluations of current political issues. In the final section of the article, an attempt is made to elaborate ideal typical patterns of collective memories and ensuing political cultures. It is concluded that the recent antidemocratic transformations in Hungarian political culture might be explained as a failure of both institutional and family transmission of collective memories to embed democratic principles.

The positioning of palliative care in acute care: A multiperspective qualitative study in the context of metastatic melanoma.

The positioning and meaning of palliative care within the healthcare system lacks clarity which adds a level of complexity to the process of transition to palliative care. This study explores the transition to the palliative care process in the acute care context of metastatic melanoma. A theoretical framework drawing on interpretive and critical traditions informs this research. The pragmatism of symbolic interactionism and the critical theory of Habermas brought a broad orientation to the research. Integration of the theoretical framework and grounded-theory methods facilitated data generation and analysis of 29 interviews with patients, family carers, and healthcare professionals. The key analytical findings depict a scope of palliative care that was uncertain for users of the system and for those working within the system. Becoming "palliative" is not a defined event; nor is there unanimity around referral to a palliative care service. As such, ambiguity and tension contribute to the difficulties involved in negotiating the transition to palliative care. Our findings point to uncertainty around the scopes of practice in the transition to palliative care. The challenge in the transition process lies in achieving greater coherency of care within an increasingly specialized healthcare system. The findings may not only inform those within a metastatic melanoma context but may contribute more broadly to palliative practices within the acute care setting.

Interacting among State and Public Sphere in Contemporary History of Iran

The goal of this study is interaction among state and public sphere as part of civil society in Iran contemporary periods. Public sphere is an index for open society and transformation toward democracy. Habermas theory about public sphere were my guide theoretical framework, the methodology was documental, data collected from historian documents. Results of study shows that public sphere in contemporary history of Iran is very weak and periodical, public sphere sunrise and fall by change of power and government, the role of governor's politician in the opening of this space is important.

Legitimizing farmers' new knowledge, learning and practices through communicative action: Application of an agro-environmental policy

This article examines the role of communication in the process that guides economic actors to integrate the moral obligations implied by adopting sustainability principles in their action choices and to reexamine their practices. We analyze two approaches to implementing agro-environmental measures that encourage farmers to preserve water resources. Verbal interactions between farmers and agricultural advisors, who are part of these policy programs, are analyzed drawing on Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative action. The discourse analysis used here shows that communicative action encouraged participants to re-examine the validity of the technical, experiential, and normative knowledge that legitimized their reasons for acting. This study brings to light the fact that, in the context of a business primarily oriented towards making a profit, committing to sustainable development does not only operate in technical terms; such a commitment also requires collective validation of the effectiveness of alternative farming practices.

The problem with problem-solving justice: coercion vs. democratic deliberation

AbstractProblem-solving justice is analysed in terms of democratic theory about the conditions under which courts are justified in applying coercive sanctions. The guilty plea process forces defendants to forego evidentiary proof and accept treatment and surveillance. All problem-solving ‘courts', which actually are corrections agencies, operate this way. This violates the legitimating triadic structure in which judges adjudicate, not medicate. Two popular problem-solving models are therapeutic justice and restorative justice. The therapeutic model is individualistic and emphasises personal responsibility, consistent with neoliberal penality. The restorative model is socially and communally oriented, but in practice it must be legally constrained from applying unwise popular prejudices. Habermas's theory of communicative action and discourse ethics of democratic deliberation presents an alternative to both models. Communicative interaction implies a commitment to factual truth, sincerity, and normativity ...

News Craze: Public Sphere and the Eighteenth-Century Theatrical Depiction of Newspaper Culture

This article examines the depiction of “newspaper culture” -- i.e, the increasing obsession with news and newspapers and current events — in the eighteenth-century London theater, through the prevalence of “Quidnunc” (or news-obsessed) characters of both genders and all social classes. It places this phenomenon in the context of current theories of publics and the public sphere, and as a “test-case” especially for Habermas's theories of the political public sphere.

The Role of Affect in Theology and Public Life: A Review of Joshua Hordern's Political Affections: Civic Participation and Moral Theology

The Role of Affect in Theology and Public Life: A Review of Joshua Hordern's <i>Political Affections: Civic Participation and Moral Theology</i>

Audience Response to Values-based Marketplace Advocacy by the Fossil Fuel Industries

A form of issue advocacy, marketplace advocacy campaigns often arise in response to burgeoning societal concerns, especially those faced by energy industries. Although these campaigns may include brief and selective references to corporate activities, most campaigns place a much stronger emphasis on commonly shared societal values. This study examines audience response to values-based environmental marketplace advocacy messages by the fossil fuel industries through a series of focus groups. Four instrumental values were identified in campaign videos (innovation, community, resilience, and patriotism), and the terminal value of pragmatism, especially as it relates to environmental issues, was identified as a result of identification with one or more of the instrumental values. The findings are discussed through the lens of extant research on marketplace advocacy and organizational values as well as Habermas's theory of refuedalization, shedding light on the ways corporations appeal to commonly held societal values in an effort to generate support for a given industry.

Deliberative public sphere: The rereading of Habermas’s theory in Brazil and its significance for a public theology

With the democratization process in Brazil, legal guarantees were obtained for political mobilizations and organizations. At the societal level, the emergence of new social actors helped expand the boundaries of the political and consolidate a politically influential public sphere. Although communication between the public sphere and the political system occurs under many limitations, new experiences at the local level such as the Participatory Budget enable a clearer link between society and state. In theoretical terms, this means a complement to a discursive conception of the public sphere as developed by Jurgen Habermas, as a deliberative function is assigned to it. In this paper, after considering the social and theoretical context of reception and rereading of the concept of public sphere in sociological studies in Brazil, we engage the question about a public theology that can be developed in a dialogue with Habermas’s theory. Resorting to the criticism of South African theologians James Cochrane and Tinyiko Maluleke against public theologies that based on Habermas reject the democratic potential of liberation theologies, we affirm that criticism and resistance are constitutive elements of democratic dialogue. This affirmation is not inconsistent with the political theory of Habermas; rather, his theory allows to identify the relevance of a public theology precisely in its connection with spheres of life in which the suffering caused by the social problems to be denounced and discussed in the public sphere are more directly perceived. Besides the link between lifeworld and public sphere, as well as between public sphere and political system, other themes of Habermas’s political theory regarded in this article as relevant to be considered in discussions of public theology are the creative potential of language and the presence of religion in the public sphere.

Comunidades de Aprendizagem e a participação educativa de familiares e da comunidade: elemento-chave para uma educação de êxito para todos

O tema geral do presente artigo e a questao da participacao educativa de familiares e da comunidade como elemento-chave em prol do exito educativo para todas as pessoas na atual sociedade do conhecimento e da informacao, por meio da proposta de Comunidades de Aprendizagem (CA). Trata-se de contribuicoes advindas de pesquisa realizada em escolas que se transformaram em Comunidades de Aprendizagem em diferentes contextos de atuacao: Brasil e Espanha. Pautada no conceito de aprendizagem dialogica, que tem por base central as teorias de Habermas e Freire, bem como na metodologia comunicativo-critica, a pesquisa teve nas entrevistas e grupos de discussoes seus principais instrumentos de coleta. A analise dos dados contou com o envolvimento de grupos assessores de professoras, criancas, voluntarios/ as, gestoras e familiares. Os resultados alcancados revelaram a existencia de relacoes mais respeitosas e dialogicas e melhorias nas aprendizagens de todos. As dificuldades se resumem na busca por manter vivo o dialogo igualitario conquistado entre os diferentes agentes.Palavras-chave: Comunidades de Aprendizagem, participacao, aprendizagem dialogica.

Comunidades de Aprendizagem e a participação educativa de familiares e da comunidade: elemento-chave para uma educação de êxito para todos

The main subject of the article is the involvement of families and communities as the key element in promoting successful education for everyone in today’s knowledge and information society through the Learning Community (LC) proposal. It contains contributions from a research project conducted at schools that have become Learning Communities in two different contexts of action, viz. Brazil and Spain. This research is focused on the concept of dialogic learning, which is based on the central theories of Habermas and Freire, as well as on the communicative-critical methodology, and its main collection instruments were interviews and discussion groups. Advisory committees made up of teachers, children, volunteers, managers and family members were involved in the analysis of its data. The results achieved included more respectful and dialogic relations and an improvement of everyone’s learning. The diffi culties relate to the need for keeping the egalitarian dialog alive among the various agents involved.Keywords: Learning Community, participation, dialogic learning.

Gender and the Public Sphere in Habermas and Milton: New Critical Directions

AbstractThis essay assesses the evolving field of feminist scholarship on Jürgen Habermas's public sphere theory, especially the move from critique to dialogue and recognition of the uses of the public sphere in opening up democratic debate and in interrogating the relations between public and private. While Habermas has proven equally useful and productive for formulations of the public sphere in John Milton's prose and poetry, Milton scholarship has largely separated out the analysis of a political public sphere of implicitly masculine readers from discussions of gender, the private sphere, and Eve in Paradise Lost. Examples of more recent criticism, however, indicate how bridging gender and the public sphere and breaking down binaries between public and private can open new conversations about women and gender in Milton's political prose and about the political resonances of Eve and Eden in Paradise Lost.

Conceptualizing Transnational Engagements: A Structure and Agency Perspective on (Hometown) Transnationalism

This paper unfolds a conceptual framework of migrants’ transnational engagements. It combines three elements: a concept of social agent apprehended in its plurality of roles and social embedding; the Habermas theory of communicative action accounting for the communicative dimension of transnational engagements; a concept of social institution explaining the role of migrant organizations in framing transnational activities. This framework is applied to the analysis of cross border engagements of Moroccan, Algerian and Indian hometown organizations in the development of their respective sending areas.

Inovação para quem? O caso da política de inovação da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora.

This article aims to harmonize the criteria for adoption of public policies in the area of innovation within the Institutions of Science and Technology of Brazil (ICT) to a post-positivistic interpretation of legal norms regarding the topic. From Ronald Dworkin ‘s theory of Integrity and Habermas´s theory of Communicative Action applied the law, the intent is to rebuild arguably the institutional framework of innovation in the country so that it serves as normative support for the adoption of public policies that aim to mitigate the effects of an unfair planning in the sector. For this, it is argued that the adoption of public policies by Institutions of Science and Technology should distance itself from a purely utilitarian conception of innovation, that is, a conception oriented exclusively by the quantitative balance of aspects such as time and cost. Takes place, from this new perspective, a case study on innovation policy of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, namely the Innovation Incentive Program (IIP). In conclusion, it is assumed that the policy adopted by the University should be changed according to the proposed theoretical understanding. Although this study constitutes an acidic critique on methods of adoption of public policies in the area of innovation in Brazil, it was not able to restore, due to the early stage of the research, specific criteria to propose public policies by ICT. The originality of the work consists in the problematization of the unquestioned practice, however morally and legally deficient.

El modelo pedagógico dialógico crítico en la educación

Antecedentes: La Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander en su Proyecto Pedagógico Institucional define un enfoque pedagógico dialógico crítico que tiene su origen, por una parte, en los diálogos socráticos y se basa en las teorías de Freire y Habermas, entre otros, entendiendo el diálogo como una forma de expresar el pensamiento, las acciones comunicativas como forma de generar conocimiento y la educación como un proceso que involucra a todos los actores para promover interacciones humanas que propendan por la transformación tanto de quien enseña como de quien aprende, y por otra, en la escuela de Frankfurt que sustenta la teoría crítica de la sociedad, comprendiendo la educación como un proceso que involucra a todos los actores, y tiene como propósito motivar una reflexión permanente por parte de la comunidad docente de la Universidad sobre sus prácticas pedagógicas. Objetivo: Reflexionar sobre los fundamentos ontológicos, epistemológicos, teóricos y contextuales del modelo pedagógico institucional. Métodos: Para la realización del artículo se procedió en primer lugar a la consulta de producción bibliográfica de los autores más reconocidos y la revisión de diversos artículos de investigación relacionados con el tema, y posteriormente al análisis teórico y contrastación académica con la actividad docente en la UFPS. Conclusión: Los profesores de la Universidad desarrollan prácticas pedagógicas que orienten la labor docente a un ejercicio permanente de cambio incorporando los últimos avances científicos y la actualización de contenidos temáticos contextualizados a la solución de problemas del entorno social. La docencia en la UFPS no es una actividad reducida a la enseñanza en el aula, es todo un sistema que a su vez está constituido por una serie de subsistemas, que interactúan para contribuir al mejoramiento continuo de su calidad y productividad en un proceso continuo de apropiación por parte de los docentes del enfoque pedagógico dialógico-crítico en los procesos de formación de sus estudiantes.Palabras clave: Crítico-Dialógico, Educación, Modelo Pedagógico Abstract Background: The Francisco de Paula Santander University in its Institutional Education Project defines a critical dialogical pedagogical focusing that originates, first, in the Socratic dialogues and is based on the theories of Freire and Habermas, among others, understanding the dialogue as a way of expressing the thought, communicative actions as a way of generating knowledge and education as a process that involves all stakeholders to promote human interactions which foster the transformation of both who taught as part of the learner, and secondly, in the Frankfurt School critical theory underpinning of society, comprising education as a process involving all stakeholders, and aims to encourage ongoing reflection by the faculty of the University community about their pedagogical practices. Objective: Reflecting on the ontological, epistemological, theoretical and institutional context of the pedagogical model. Methods: To achieve the article was first proceeded to query bibliographic production of the most renowned authors and review of various research articles related to the topic, and then the theoretical analysis and academic teaching activities contrasting with the UFPS. Conclusion: University teachers develop pedagogical practices that orient teaching activity in a permanent change incorporating the latest scientific advances and updating content areas contextualized problem solving social environment. Teaching in the UFPS is not reduced to teaching in the classroom activity, it is an entire system which in turn consists of a number of subsystems, which interact to contribute to the continuous improvement of quality and productivity of teaching in a continuous process appropriation by teachers of critical dialogical processes of formation of its students pedagogical approach.Keywords: Critical-Dialogic, Education, Pedagogical Model.

The Method as Justification: An Alternative Characterization of the Central Problem of Justifying Freedoms and Rights

In a stage-wise view of the process of constructing and realizing a system of freedoms and rights, one central problem is the establishment of robust bases of justification towards a greater degree of acceptability of the system's theoretical framework. By drawing insights from various theories of rights as well as from the works of Rawls, Sen, and Habermas, two characterizations of the central problem of justification are presented. The first characterization is in terms of adopting a fundamental universal principle or set of principles in establishing the bases of justification. The second and alternative characterization invokes the notion of the method as justification and is in terms of establishing the appropriate procedures and conditions under which a reasonable system of freedoms and rights could be constructed and justified. It is argued that this alternative characterization is more plausible because it evades the tension between the pluralistic character of human reality and the narrow universalizing character of fundamental principles in the first characterization. Following this argument, this paper draws from the constructivist approach of Rawls and the discourse theory of Habermas and presents a conceptual sketch of the constructive and integrative approach towards establishing robust bases of justification for a system of freedoms and rights.

Discovering Civil Discourse: Using the Online Public Sphere for Authentic Assessment

CoursesArgumentation, Computer Mediated Communication, Critical and Cultural Theory, Online Journalism, Persuasion, Public Opinion, Rhetoric and the InternetObjectivesStudents will recognize Habermas's public sphere theory and analyze public deliberation occurring within the online public sphere. After completing this unit activity, students will also be able to distinguish between civil and uncivil comments that people use in online forums. Finally, students will construct civil comments in an online public forum.