1. Re-defines what we mean by public.
No longer does public refer to government/political decision making organizations. Rather, Jürgen Habermas defines the public sphere as follows:
By the "public sphere" we mean first of all a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens. A portion of the public sphere comes into being in every conversation in which private individuals assemble to form a public body. They then behave neither like business or professional people transacting private affairs, nor like members of a constitutional order subject to the legal constraints of a state bureaucracy. Citizens behave as a public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion -- that is, with the guarantee of assembly and association and the freedom to express and publish their opinions -- about matters of general interest. ("The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article" New German Critique 3 (1974): 49)
Habermas's definition highlights the importance of free speech and consensus
building in a public arena as essential to the development of a healthy
public space. Additionally, he underscores the primary essence of a public
realm -- conversation. This essentially Legitimizing sphere stands
in contrast to the Decisionmaking political sphere, typified by
public discussion about objects connected to the state (Note Klumpp's distinction
between decisionmaking and legitimizing).
This distinction (between the public and political as well as private)
is critical distinction. As Nancy Fraser, author of "Rethinking the
Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy"
notes, Habermas's distinction provides a useful conceptual resource that
can overcome problems encountered in Marxian theory and contemporary feminisms
because Habermas highlights a forum in which people can discursively interact
and be critical of the state, thereby allowing scholars to remain mindful
of the distinctions among state apparatus, economic markets and modes of
production, and democratic associations/civic participation. These distinctions
Fraser believes, "are essential to democratic theory." (111)
In other words, Habermas:
2. Argues that discursive action forms the basis of a healthy public sphere.
Unlike the political scientists who posit institutions as the basis
of public life, Habermas claims that public life is communication. This
proposition forms the basis of Habermas's theory of universal pragmatics
and communicative action, both of which locate the basis of coordinated
human action in universal speech acts. In other words, Habermas wants to
develop a theory about how we use universal rules for using language to
arrive at consensus.
Questions for The Theory of Communicative Action
1. What does Habermas mean by communicative action?
2. Both Burke and Habermas are concerned about coordinating human action. How do their programs differ methodologically and conceptually? What are the merits/strengths of each?
3. Are distinctions among private, public and politics necessary? important? How does Habermas distinguish among these terms? How might we? What is the place of rhetoric in these distinctions?
4. What is an "ideal speech situation" according to Habermas?
5. Habermas seems to privilege consensus, or the reaching of understanding/agreement throughout his works. Is consensus a defining characteristic of the public sphere? What is the role of controversy? difference?
6. How might Habermas conceive of the role of morality, history and
ethics in his conception of the public sphere?
Questions for "The Public Sphere: What Does a Crisis Mean Today?"
1. To what extent is Habermas's attack on "capitalism" misguided?
What can we learn from Habermas's critique that can help form our theoretical
conceptions of the public sphere?
Key Move
1. Public Sphere as Discursively/"Narratively" constructed from a contextualist perspective
Rather than conceiving of the public sphere as a state in which people
rationally deliberate on matters of common interest, Fisher shifts perspectives
from a more normative tradition to one in which people discursively construct
the public sphere through creating and making sense out of narratives.
Unlike Habermas, participation in the public sphere is guaranteed to all
people on an equal basis because of our natural capacity as story-tellers.
In some ways, then, Fisher reverses the role of the speaker, critic and
audience in that the citizens/audience become the creators of discourse.
Questions for Fisher's "Narration as a Human Communication
Paradigm: The Case of Public Moral Argument."
1. In what ways might Fisher's argument be viewed as a critique against
Habermas? In what ways does Fisher's project parallel that of Habermas?
2. In Fisher's view, what constitutes the public sphere? What is the role
of rhetoric in the public sphere? Does he distinguish the public from the
private? If so, how? If not, on what basis might he do so? How is Fisher's
notion of the public sphere and the purpose of rhetoric in the public sphere
different from Habermas's conception of the role of rhetoric in and nature
of the public sphere?
3. What is the role of difference, gender, cultures in Fisher's conception
of the public sphere?
4. What does Fisher mean by the "logic of good reasons"? What
is the role, if any, for traditional argument/reasoning in the public sphere?
Key Moves
1. Public Sphere as Constituted through Deliberative Argument.
As Goodnight states "The study of why uncertainties appear, what
they mean, how they are banished only to be reformed, and what practices
shape the course of future events is important, for knowledge of argument's
varieties may illuminate the values, character, and blindspots of an era,
society, or person." (216) This statement also implies the necessity
for self-reflexivity and reflects Goodnight's sensitivity to the process
of social change.
2. Through deliberation, spheres may potentially expand, contract and/or
shift rhetorical ground
Like Fisher, Goodnight does not conceive of a "static" normative
public sphere. Instead, as people deliberate, the grounds of argument may
shift in and out of the spheres, as exemplified by the deliberation about
poverty (from personal to public), environment (from public to technical)
and
Questions
1. Goodnight assumes that public deliberation is a necessary requirement
for a healthy public sphere. In fact, because he perceives a decline in
space for public deliberation, he asserts that public life is diminishing.
On what grounds does he make this case? Do you agree? Is there a hint of
romanticism/of the ideal/ of a time gone by when we had a public life?
2. Goodnight's argument allows for uncertainty and sometimes controversy.
Indeed, he asserts uncertainty as an essential component of argument. On
the other hand, Goodnight also notes that "an appropriately designed
public forum would provide a tradition of argument such that its speakers
would employ common language, values, and reasoning so that the disagreement
could be settled to the satisfaction of all concerned" (217). In doing
so, Goodnight demonstrates a major problematic for contemporary rhetorical
theorists engaged in public sphere studies: the relationship/dialectic/tension
between consensus and controversy; commonalty and difference. Do any of
the theorists we have read thus far provide us with concepts for talking
about this dialectic in meaningful terms?
3. Goodnight's breakdown of the public spheres is similar to that of
Habermas (life-world/techno-world and bourgeois, state and plebeian spheres)?
What does Goodnight do differently in theorizing the public sphere that
may have helped Habermas avoid a more normative conception?
4. How does Goodnight conceive of the relationship among the three spheres
and what is the place of rhetoric in each?
5. Goodnight asserts that a "theory of argument that would ground
reason giving in the technical sphere is in opposition to the requirements
of personal and public life" (223) Given that a few pages earlier
(219), Goodnight discussed academic logic as pertaining to the technical
world, I think Goodnight raises another problematic: what is the role of
the public intellectual in the public sphere? the academic intellectual?
the public participant? are these mutually exclusive? Why do we write for
academic journals?
Food For Thought: How might you theorize the public sphere? What
is the place of difference? contestation? consensus? What are the signs
of a healthy public sphere and what is rhetoric's role in its construction?
In General, Public Sphere Literature Works On Several
Key Issues
1. Rhetoric of Science/Technology/Mass Media and Public Sphere OR Public
Society Vs. Mass Society: (Klumpp, Jensen, Willard, Mills, Hogan,
Lucaites)
What is the role of technology in the public sphere? Of the mass media
(internet, art, television, print media)? As J. Michael Hogan suggests
in "George Gallup and the Rhetoric Scientific Democracy," have
opinion polls/technology devices become the primary vehicle of public opinion--and
if so, how do we evaluate this shift? What is the role of public opinion
in the public sphere? Should public opinion drive public policy, or does
public opinion serve some other vital democratic functions?
Drawing on Dewey's notion of pragmatic aesthetics, Jensen writes: "Taking
Dewey seriously means taking seriously the possibility that aesthetic activity,
even if it involves unsophisticated, untrained, non-intellectuals,
is of a piece with, is coterminous with, is not essentially different from,
the aesthetic activity of sophisticated, trained, artists and connoisseurs"
(374). In Jensen's mind, democracy is recognizing the mundane forms of
democracy already in existence not the educating/training of the masses
to be better democratic participants [or in his analogy, recognizing car
washing, gardening and cooking as art (read democracy) instead of valuing
the Monets, Renoirs, Titians as art (read exclusive property of the intellectuals)].
The cure for the public sphere--more "mass"/common democracy!
What are the implications of Jensen's efforts to dissociate "education,
taste, arts and democracy" for public sphere theory? How might we
read Jensen as a critique of Habermas? As an affirmation of Habermas? (376)
Klumpp's critique of Willard can be read as a call for a public sphere
grounded in common sense and legitimation as opposed to decision making.
What is the place of "ordinary" people in the public sphere?
What type of discourse/discussion/modes of talking characterize the public
sphere? What is the function of the public sphere? What types of questions
should we be asking in the public sphere? I read Klumpp as also calling
for contextualist public sphere? What kinds of characteristics are embedded
in this conception? In other words, what does a conceptualist sphere look
like?
Lucaites notes that the "rise to prominence of social and photographic
documentary in the 1930s marks a significant shift in the rhetorical consciousness
of American public culture, for it represented a pronounced alteration
in the way in which the increasingly mass mediated rhetorical culture invited
and encouraged Americans to think of themselves as 'the people'" (274).
I believe that the internet has done something similar. How do electronic
media (e-mail, fax, www, etc.) inform our conception of American public
culture?
2. Rhetoric of Morality and Ethics (Hogan, Lucaites):
What is the role of morality and ethics in the public sphere? Hogan
suggests that public discourse is poorer because of the merger between
opinion polls and journalism, two distinct fields with diverse institutional
objectives. Polls, Hogan, claims have substituted for substantive information
about political issues and therefore, stifle debate. As his example, Hogan
notes that in the Persian Gulf War, pollsters were not asking questions
regarding Bush's war policy but instead were asking the public to speculate
about "less important issues" such as how many Americans would
be killed, how long the war would last and the role of prayer in saving
lives. Hogan's piece raises questions about how we might go about judging
quality public debate. What readings have we read that may help us answer
this question?
Lucaites implicates a morality in discussing the aesthetic and political
representation of people. In other words, Lucaites calls attention to the
moral, ethical and political implications of the ways in which we talk
about "the people" and "individuals." Lucaites urges
us to consider the problems in conflating particular "individual"
with the abstract class of "aggregate individuals" (individual
as synecdoche for "the people"), treating human subjects as "objects"
of manipulation, and discouraging reader active engagement with the democratic
process, all potential outcomes of a mass-mediated society and the need
for differentiation and unity in democratic society.
3. Rhetoric of Difference and Controversy
Is consensus a defining element of the public sphere? What is the place of controversy in the public sphere? How can we account for differences (i.e. language, race/ethnicity, religion, geography, class) and still talk meaningfully about public opinion, the public sphere, "The People"? Many feminists, in particular, have critiqued Habermas for locating a normative account in a historical setting, thereby precluding participation of a variety of people in the public. What do you think of these critiques (Fraser, Griffin, Phillips, McLaughlin, Calhoun Book)? How do they help us think differently about the public sphere in beneficial or unproductive ways?
Return to the Public Sphere Reading Sheet
The Public Sphere: A Bibliography According to Major Theoretical Moves
COMM 652: Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
Professor James F. Klumpp
by
Lisa M. Gring-Pemble
Habermas on the Public Sphere
Habermas, Jürgen. Communication and the Evolutions of Society. Trans. Thomas McCarthy. Boston: Beacon, 1979.
. Legitimation Crisis. Trans. Thomas McCarthy. Boston: Beacon, 1975.
. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Trans. Thomas Burger. Cambridge: MIT P, 1996.
. The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Trans. Thomas McCarthy. Boston: Beacon, 1984.
. The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 2: Lifeworld
and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Trans. Thomas McCarthy.
Boston: Beacon, 1987.
About Habermas or Extensions of The Habermasian System
Burleson, Brant R. and Susan Kline. "Habermas' Theory of Communication: A Critical Explication." Quarterly Journal of Speech. 65 (December 1979): 41228.
Foss, Sonja K., Karen A. Foss and Robert Trapp. Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 1991.
Francesconi, Robert. "The Implications of Habermas's Theory of Legitimation for Rhetorical Criticism." Communication Monographs 53 (1986): 1635.
Klumpp, James F. "The Unconsummated Flirtation: Contextualist Approach to Argument." Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Argumentation, Amsterdam, 19-22 June 1990. Eds. Frans H. van Eemeren, Rob Grootendorst, J. Anthony Blair, Charles A. Willard. Amsterdam: International Society for the Study of Argumentation, 1991. 5460.
McKerrow, Raymie E. "Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis."
Communication Monographs 56 (1989): 91111.
The Media, Technology, Mass/Public Society, and the Public Sphere OR The American Public Sphere
Aufderheide, Patricia. "Public Television and the Public Sphere." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 8 (1991): 16883.
Dewey, John. The Public and Its Problems. New York: Henry Holt, 1927.
Golding, Peter. "The Mass Media and the Public Sphere: The Crisis of Information in the 'Information Society.'" Debating the Future of the Public Sphere. Eds. Stephen Edgell, Sandra Walklate and Gareth Williams. Brookfield: Avebury, 1995. 2540.
Herbst, Susan. Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993.
Mills, C. Wright. Power, Politics and People. Ed. Irving Louis Horowitz. London: Oxford UP, 1963. 35373.
Roche, Maurice. "Recent European and American Conceptions of Democracy and Politics and the Public Sphere." Debating the Future of the Public Sphere. Eds. Stephen Edgell, Sandra Walklate and Gareth Williams. Brookfield: Avebury, 1995. 4161.
Sennett, Richard. The Fall of Public Man. New York: Knopf, 1977.
Warner, Michael. "The Mass Public and the Mass Subject." Habermas
and the Public Sphere. Ed. Craig Calhoun. Cambridge: MIT P, 1996. 377401.
Morality and Ethics and the Public Sphere
Baynes, Kenneth. "Communicative Ethics, the Public Sphere and Communication Media." Critical Studies in Mass Communication 11 (1994): 31526.
Kelly, Michael. "The Dialectical/Dialogical Structure of Ethical Reflection." Philosophy and Rhetoric 22 (1989): 17493.
McCarthy, Thomas. "Practical Discourse: On the Relation of Morality
to Politics." Habermas and the Public Sphere. Ed. Craig Calhoun.
Cambridge: MIT P, 1996. 5172.
Race and the Public Sphere
(Inquiry Into Race and the Public Sphere is Probably one of the Most Underdeveloped Areas of Public Sphere Thought)
Black Public Sphere Collective, Ed. The Black Public Sphere: A Public Culture Book. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995.
hooks, bell. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston: South End, 1989.
Murphy, John. "Inventing Authority: Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Orchestration of Rhetorical Traditions." Quarterly Journal of Speech 83 (1997): 71
West, Cornel. Race Matters. New York: Vintage, 1994.
Feminist Critiques of Habermas/Feminist Explorations into the Public Sphere
Felski, Rita. Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature and Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1989.
Fraser, Nancy. "Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy." Habermas and the Public Sphere. Ed. Craig Calhoun. Cambridge: MIT P, 1996. 109-42.
. Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1989.
Herbst, Susan. Politics at the Margin: Historical Studies of Public Expression Outside the Mainstream. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994.
McLaughlin, Lisa. "Feminism, the Public Sphere, Media and Democracy." Media, Culture and Society 15 London: SAGE, 1993.
Ryan, Mary P. Women in Public: Between Banners and Ballots, 18251880. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1990.
Young, Iris. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990.