Beyond Habermas Democracy, Knowledge, And The Public Sphere [Paperback]

During the 1960s the German philosopher J?rgen Habermas introduced the notion of a bourgeois public sphere in order to describe the symbolic arena of political life and conversation that originated with the cultural institutions of the early eighteenth-century; since then the public sphere itself has become perhaps one of the most debated concepts at the very heart of modernity. For Habermas, the tension between the administrative power of the state, with its understanding of sovereignty, and the emerging institutions of the bourgeoisiecoffee houses, periodicals, encyclopedias, literary culture, etc.was seen as being mediated by the public sphere, making it a symbolic site of public reasoning. This volume examines whether the public sphere remains a central explanatory model in the social sciences, political theory, and the humanities.

David Midgleyis Professor in German Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge, England, and a Fellow of St. Johns College. His publications include WritingWeimar: Critical Realismin German Literature, 19181933 (Oxford University Press, 2000).

Introduction:Beyond Habermas? From the Bourgeois Public Sphere to Global Publics
Christian J. Emden and David Midgley

Part I: Public Opinion in the Democratic Polity

Chapter 1.Public Sphere and Political Experience
Lord (Richard) Wilson

Chapter 2.Public Opinion and Public Sphere
Gordon Graham

Chapter 3.The Tyranny of Majority Opinion in the Public Sphere
Gary Wihl

Part II: Knowledge and the Public Sphere

Chapter 4.Epistemic Publics: On the Trading Zones of Knowledge
Christian J. Emden

Chapter 5.The Public in Public Health
Anne Hardy

Chapter 6.Geeks and Recursive Pls-