The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society

Habermas, Jürgen

ISBN 10: 0745610773 / ISBN 13: 9780745610771

Published by Polity, 1992

About this Item

Jürgen Habermas. *The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere*.
Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021 [corrected edition].

Landmark 1962 study tracing the bourgeois public sphere's emergence in 18th-century coffeehouses, salons and periodical press ? analyzing its rational-critical debate as foundation for democracy, then charting its "refeudalization" through mass media, consumer culture and welfare state intervention. Trade paperback, ~300pp, with Habermas's systematic historical-sociological framework influencing media studies, democratic theory and Frankfurt School scholarship. Essential primary text for political philosophy, communication studies and modernity critiques.

**Condition:** Very Good: light shelfwear to glossy wrappers, spine uncreased, pages clean and unmarked with no highlighting. Superior reading copy.

Habermas's most influential work defining the public sphere concept ? perennially cited across political science, sociology and cultural studies; 2021 edition includes updated introduction and notes.

Seller Inventory # 1049

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society
• Publisher: Polity
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0745610773
• ISBN 13: 9780745610771
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dimensions: 1.74W x 15.46H x 22.82D centimeters 1.74 centimeters width by 15.46 centimeters height by 22.82 centimeters depth
• Weight: 476 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This major work retraces the emergence and development of the Bourgeois public sphere - that is, a sphere which was distinct from the state and in which citizens could discuss issues of general interest. In analysing the historical transformations of this sphere, Habermas recovers a concept which is of crucial significance for current debates in social and political theory.

Habermas focuses on the liberal notion of the bourgeois public sphere as it emerged in Europe in the early modern period. He examines both the writings of political theorists, including Marx, Mill and de Tocqueville, and the specific institutions and social forms in which the public sphere was realized.

This brilliant and influential work has been widely recognized for many years as a classic of contemporary social and political thought, of interest to students and scholars throughout the social sciences and humanities.

About the Author

Jürgen Habermas is the author of numerous works including The New Conservatism (Polity 1990), The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity (Polity 1991), and Postmetaphysical Thinking (Polity 1992).