Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction: Rethinking the Public Sphere Through Transnationalizing Processes: Europe and Beyond

  • Chapter
Rethinking the Public Sphere Through Transnationalizing Processes

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology ((PSEPS))

Abstract

Public sphere reloaded — reevaluating its claims in response to transnationalization The public sphere has emerged as a key concept in recent social scientific debates on the performance of liberal democracy and the democratic self-constitution of society. Building on Habermas’ (1989 [1962]) seminal work on the transformation of the public sphere, this notion has been employed to conceptualize the social and communicative underpinnings of democratic politics in modern societies. Based on the separation between the public and the private, the public sphere provides a historically bound and culturally specific solution for the creation of social bonds beyond the family (Eder 2006). Specifically, the public sphere offers a bridge between the fragmentation of modern social life on the one hand and the concept of a solidarity-oriented and democratically organized society on the other. The key ingredient to this solution is theorized as rational public discourse that provides the communicative link between autonomous individuals as ‘citizens’, unifies them as ‘the people’, and integrates them into a mode of collective self-government (Eder 2003; 2006; Peters 1994; Somers 1995). Questions have been raised, however, about the generalizability of the public sphere model in terms of understanding how different societies construct social bonds and constitute themselves as democratic ‘publics’.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Reference

  • Bauböck, R. (1994) Transnational Citizenship: Membership and Rights in International Migration. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumann, Z. (2006) Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumann, Z. (2011) Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (2003) ‘Toward a New Critical Theory with Cosmopolitan Intent.’ Constellations 10(4): 453–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (2006) The Cosmopolitan Vision. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benhabib, S. (2011) ‘Another Universalism: On the Unity and Diversity of Human Rights’, in S. Benhabib (ed.), Dignity in Adversity: Human Rights in Troubled Times. Cambridge: Polity, 57–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohman, J. (1998) ‘The Globalization of the Public Sphere: Cosmopolitan Publicity and the Problem of Cultural Pluralism.’ Philosophy and Social Criticism 24: 199–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brubaker, R. (1992) Citizenshipand Nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, C. (1992) Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, C. (2007) Nations Matter: Culture, History, and the Cosmopolitan Dream. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chambers, S. (2009) ‘Rhetoric and the Public Sphere: Has Deliberative Democracy Abandoned Mass Democracy?’ Political Theory 37(3): 323–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. and Sabel, C. (1997) ‘Directly-Deliberative Polyarchy.’ European Law Journal 3(4): 313–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. L. and Arato, A. (1992) Civil Society and Political Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doucet, M. G. (2005) ‘The Democratic Paradox and Cosmopolitan Democracy.’ Millennium — Journal of International Studies 34: 137–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dryzek, J. (2005) ‘Deliberative Democracy in Divided Societies: Alternatives to Agonism and Analgesia.’ Political Theory 33(2): 218–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Economist (2011) The Future of News: Back to the Coffee House.July 7, 2011: 11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (1985) Geschichte als Lernprozess: Zur Pathogenese politischer Modernität in Deutschland. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (1995) ‘The Institutionalisation of Environmentalism: Ecological Discourse and the Second Transformation of the Public Sphere’, in B. Wynne, B. Szerszinski and S. Lash (eds.), Risk, Modernity and the Environment: Towards a New Ecology. London: Sage, 202–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (1999a) ‘Integration durch Kultur? Das Paradox der Suche nach einer europäischen Identität’, in R. Viehoff and R. T. Segers (eds.), Kultur, Identität, Europa: Über die Schwierigkeiten und Möglichkeiten einer Konstruktion. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 147–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (1999b) ‘Societies Learn and Yet the World Is Hard to Change.’ European Journal of Social Theory 2(2): 195–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (2000a) ‘Konstitutionsbedingungen einer transnationalen Gesellschaft in Europa: Zur nachholenden Modernisierung Europas’, in W. Heyde and T. Schaber (eds.), Demokratisches Regieren in Europa? Baden-Baden: Nomos, 87–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (2000b) Kulturelle Indentitäten zwischen Utopie und Tradition: Soziale Bewegungen als Ort gesellschaftlicher Lernprozesse. Frankfurt a. M: Campus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (2000c) ‘Zur Transformation nationalstaatlicher Öffentlichkeit in Europa. Von der Sprachgemeinschaft zur issuespezifischen Kommun-kationsgemeinschaft.’ Berliner Journal für Soziologie 3: 167–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (2003) ‘Öffentlichkeit und Demokratie’, in M. Jachtenfuchs and B. Kohler-Koch (eds.), Europäische Integration. Opladen: Leske and Budrich, 85–120.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (2006) ‘The Public Sphere.’ Theory, Culture & Society 23(2-3): 607–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. (2008). ‘Symbolic Power and Cultural Differences: A Power Model of Political Solutions to Cultural Differences,’ in P. Mouritsen and K. E. Jørgensen (eds.), ConstitutingCommunities: Political Solutions to Cultural Difference. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 31–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. and Giesen, B. (2001) ‘Citizenship and the Making of a European Society’, in K. Eder and B. Giesen (eds.), European Citizenship between National Legacies and Postnational Projects. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 245–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K., Giesen, B., Schmidtke, O. and Tambini, D. (2002) Collective Identities in Action: A Sociological Approach to Ethnicity. Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K., Hellmann, K.-U. and Trenz, H.-J. (1998) ‘Regieren in Europa jenseits öffentlicher Legitimation? Einer Untersuchung zur Rolle von politischer Öffentlichkeit in Europa.’ Politische Vierteljahresschrift 29: 321–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. and Kantner, C. (2000) ‘Transnationale Resonanzstrukturen in Europa. Eine Kritik der Rede vom Öffentlichkeitdefizit in Europa’, in M. Bach (ed.), Transnationale Integrationsprozesse in Europa. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 306–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, K. and Trenz, H.-J. (2003) ‘The Making of a European Public Sphere: The Case of Justice and Home Affairs’, in B. Kohler-Koch (ed.), Linking EU and National Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 111–34.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eriksen, E. O. (2005) ‘An Emerging European Public Sphere.’ European Journal of Social Theory 8(3): 341–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fishkin, J. (2009) When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forst, R. (1999) ‘The Basic Right to Justification: Toward a Constructivist Conception of Human Rights.’ Constellations 6: 35–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forst, R. (2011) The Right to Justification: Elements of a Constructivist Theory of Justice. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (1992) ‘Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy’, in C. Calhoun (ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 109–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (2005) ‘Reframing Justice in a Globalised World.’ New Left Review 36: 69–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (2007) ‘Transnationalizing the Public Sphere: On the Legitimacy and Efficacy of Public Opinion in a Post-Westphalian World.’ Theory, Culture & Society 24: 7–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golding, P., Murdock, G. and Schlesinger, P. (eds.) (1986) Communicating Politics: Mass Communication and the Political Process. Leicester: Leicester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greven, M. (2007) ‘Some Considerations on Participation in Participatory Governance’, in B. Kohler-Koch and B. Rittberger (eds.), Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 233–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1981) Theorie des Kommunikative Handelns (2 volumes). Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1989 [1962]) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1992) Faktizität und Geltung: Beiträge zur Diskurstheorie des Rechts. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (2001) The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (2005) Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (2011) Zur Verfassung Europas. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hafez, K. and Skinner, A. (2007) The Myth of Media Globalization. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraus, P. A. (2012) ‘The Politics of Complex Diversity: A European Perspective.’ Ethnicities 12(1): 3–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C. (2006) ‘Democracy and the European Union: Matching Means to Standards.’ Democratization 13(4): 668–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Majone, G. (2009) ‘The “Referendum Threat”, the Rational Ignorant Voter and the Political Culture of the EU,’ RECON Online Working Papers, 2009/04, http://www.reconproject.eu/main.php/RECON_wp_0904.pdf?fileitem= 5456014).

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P. (1984) ‘The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life.’ American Political Science Review 78(3): 734–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcinkowski, F. (2002) ‘Politische Öffentlichkeit: Systemtheoretische Grundlagen und politikwissenschaftliche Konsequenzen’, in K.-U. Hellmann and R. Schmalz-Bruns (eds.), Theorie der Politik: Niklas Luhmanns politische Soziologie. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 85–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meehan, E. (1997) ‘Political Pluralism and European Citizenship’, in P. Lehning and A. Weale (eds.), Citizenship, Democracy and Justice in the New Europe. New York: Routledge, 69–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michailidou, A., Trenz, H.-J. and de Wilde, P. (2012) ‘(W)e the Peoples of Europe: Representations of the European Union Polity during the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections on the Internet’, in T. Evas, U. Liebert and C. Lord (eds.), Multilayered Representation in the European Union: Parliaments, Courts and the Public Sphere. Wiesbaden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 215–32.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mouffe, C. (2000) Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism.’ Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Reihe Politikwissenschaften 72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Offe, C. (2003) Herausforderungen der Demokratie: Zur Integrations-und Leistungsfähigkeit politischer Institutionen. Frankfurt a.M. and New York: Campus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, B. (1993) Die Integration moderner Gesellschaften. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, B. (1994) ‘Der Sinn von Öffentlichkeit,’ in F. Neidhardt (ed.), Öffentlichkeit, öffentliche Meinung, soziale Bewegungen. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 42–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Risse, T. (2010) A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Spheres. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salvatore, A. (2007a) The Public Sphere: Liberal Modernity, Catholicism, Islam. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Salvatore, A. (2007b) ‘The Exit from a Westphalian Framing of Political Space and the Emergence of a Transnational Islamic Public.’ Theory, Culture and Society 24(4): 41–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salvatore, A. (2013) ‘New Media, the “Arab Spring”, and the Metamorphosis of the Public Sphere: Beyond Western Assumptions on Collective Agency and Democratic Politics.’ Constellations 20(2) early view http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cons.12033/full.

  • Schmidtke, O. (2001) ‘Trans-National Migration: A Challenge to European Citizenship Regimes.’ World Affairs 164(1): 3–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schnädelbach, H. (1991) ‘The Transformation of Critical Theory: Jürgen Habermas’ The Theory of Communicative Action,’ in A. Honneth and H. Joas (eds.), Communicative Action: Essays on Jürgen Habermas’ ‘The Theory of Communicative Action’. Cambridge: Polity, 7–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schütz, A. and Luckmann, T. (1979) Strukturen der Lebenswelt. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Somers, M. (1995) ‘What’s Political or Cultural about Political Culture and the Public Sphere? Toward an Historical Sociology of Concept Formation.’ Sociological Theory 13(2): 113–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trenz, H.-J. (2009a) ‘In Search of a European Public Sphere: Between Normative Overstretch and Empirical Disenchantment,’ in I. Salovaara-Moring (ed.), Manufacturing Europe: Spaces of Democracy, Diversity and Communication. Göteborg: Nordicom, 35–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trenz, H.-J. (2009b) ‘Digital Media and the Return of the Representative Public Sphere.’ Javnost. The Public 16(1): 33–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warner, M. (2002) Publics and Counterpublics. New York: Zone Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wimmer, A. and Glick-Schiller, N. (2003) ‘Methodological Nationalism, the Social Sciences, and the Study of Migration: An Essay in Historical Epistemology.’ International Migration Review 37(3): 576–610.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Armando Salvatore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Oliver Schmidtke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hans-Jörg Trenz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Naples “L’ Orientale”, Italy

    Armando Salvatore

  2. University of Victoria, Canada

    Oliver Schmidtke

  3. University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Hans-Jörg Trenz

Copyright information

© 2013 Armando Salvatore, Oliver Schmidtke, and Hans-Jörg Trenz

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Salvatore, A., Schmidtke, O., Trenz, HJ. (2013). Introduction: Rethinking the Public Sphere Through Transnationalizing Processes: Europe and Beyond. In: Salvatore, A., Schmidtke, O., Trenz, HJ. (eds) Rethinking the Public Sphere Through Transnationalizing Processes. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283207_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation