A renewed conception of the public sphere in Habermas' work: the importance of the communicative action theoretical framework

• Grant number: 22/00763-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2022
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Severino Nobre
• Grantee: Pedro Pacheco e Zan
• Supervisor: Robin Celikates
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/00964-6 - Two conceptions of the public sphere in Jurgen Habermas work, BP.MS

Abstract

This project, part of an ongoing research, proposes an investigation on the importance of the new theoretical framework developed by Habermas in The Theory of Communicative Action for a new conception of the public sphere. We understand that the first formulation of this concept in his work, namely in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, is still related to the work of Adorno and Horkheimer and their critique of late capitalism, especially on the topic of the disintegration and depoliticization of the bourgeois public sphere. Habermas understands that, in the twentieth century, the welfare state and mass media interfere in the public sphere, altering its function, and distorting its critical potential. As we intend in investigating, Habermas' critique of Adorno and Horkheimer, and subsequent change of paradigm towards communicative action are key for overcoming his first diagnosis. This new theoretical framework, with the intention of renewing Critical Theory's project, opens the possibility for a reformulation of the concept in Habermas' work. (AU)