Masses, Classes and the Public Sphere - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1859847773 ISBN 13: 9781859847770

Publisher: Verso, 2000

Synopsis

Despite the passing of some forty years since the original publication of Jurgen Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, the fundamental concepts that informed the book remain prominent and distinctly influential. So much so that the term ‘public spheres,’ as Habermas introduced it, has today become  an ultimately foundational concept for assessing everything from intellectual debate and ‘public access’ criticism, to the function of race, gender, and sexual difference in contemporary civil society.

As new demands have been made on the concepts, so people have redefined and extended them, positing the idea of a plurality of ‘counter-public spheres’ (proletarian, bourgeois, feminine, national, global, for instance), and continually addressing the philosophical concept of the public sphere itself. This volume attempts to move beyond these debates to pose fundamental questions about the function and continued relevance of the public sphere today, both politically and practically. A set of distinguished essays, ranging from the philosophical foundations of the Enlightenment to contemporary struggles over civil rights and public policy, seek to highlight the internal conflicts that have marked the progressive development of Habermas’s original concept.

About this title

About the Author

Mike Hill is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Albany, New York. He is the editor of Whiteness: A Critical Reader and the author of Whiteness: Identity, Knowledge, Change.

Warren Montag is Associate Professor of English at Occidental College, Los Angeles. He is the author of Bodies, Masses, Power: Spinoza and his Contemporaries and the Unthinkable Swift.

Étienne Balibar is a French Marxist philosopher and the most celebrated student of Louis Althusser. He is also one of the leading exponents of French Marxist philosophy and the author of Spinoza and Politics, The Philosophy of Marx and co-author of Race, Nation and Class and Reading Capital.

Reviews

This collection explores the politics and intellectual history of J rgen Habermas's The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (published in 1961 in German and in 1989 in English), one of the most influential works of postwar social science. As the editors note, Habermas "seems to have provided 'modernity' with its most theoretically sophisticated defense." In highlighting the emergence of civil society and a "public sphere" in 18th-century Britain, Habermas provided "a set of realistic objectives for social reforms." But editors Hill (Whiteness: A Critical Reader) and Montag (Bodies, Masses, Power), along with their contributors, take issue with Habermas's conception of the public sphere as a safe environment in which individuals can formulate their ideas and debate issues without having to resort to force or action to advance their position. Their point is that in the real world ideas are always linked to economic, political, and/or social interests that embody the threat of force (even if the threat isn't always carried out) and that Habermas is putting an ideological gloss on a system based on coercion. While some of the contributors explore these issues by way of historical research, others tackle Habermas's conceptual apparatus by way of theoretical critique. The strongest chapters are those that connect Habermas's research with the broader intellectual concerns of thinkers such as Etienne Balibar and Michael Hardt. Hill's chapter on E.P. Thompson, Louis Althusser, and Adam Smith is similarly strong, while Montag's "The Pressure of the Street" is polemically charged if heavy-handed. Highly recommended for university libraries. Kent Worcester, Marymount Manhattan Coll., NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1859847773
• ISBN 13: 9781859847770
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Hill Mike, Montag Warren