New Transformations of the public Sphere: Contemporary Discussions in Germany

The article discusses the main stages and approaches to analyzing the problem of publicity using the example of the works of Heidegger, Horkheimer, and Adorno. The reasons for the absence of a positive concept of publicity in German philosophy of the first half of the twentieth century are shown, as well as the connection between a negative attitude towards publicity and the global socio-historical pessimism of that time. The significance of the theory of publicity presented in two studies of Habermas, “Structural Changes of the Public Sphere” (1962) and publications 2021–2022, is analyzed, as well as its connection with the political theory of democracy. Habermas interprets the “public sphere” as a special space for the application of critical discourse, emerging in the era of the emergence of capitalism. If in feudal society “publicity” is identified with the state, then in the 18th–19th centuries. a practice of discussions about literature is emerging, gradually expanding to a critical discussion of social processes. With the achievement by the middle of the twentieth century bourgeois society at the stage of “mass democracy” and the intervention of the state, which actively uses manipulative technologies, the rational foundations of the discourse of the public sphere give way to non-rational ones. The area of publicity becomes an area of confrontation and conflict between the interests of various social groups. New structural transformations in the sphere of publicity become noticeable in 2010–2020 and are associated with the emergence of new media, the new role of social networks. One of Habermas’ main critical arguments points out that the media structure changed by digitalization may deepen contemporary problems with contemporary Western democracy and result in deepening of it’s crisis. Habermas’ theory is contrasted against the theories of other media theorists (Marshall McLuhan, Niklas Luhmann and others).

social theory, critical theory, Habermas, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, democracy, media, capitalism, public sphere