How to Do Things With Words

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

Meanwhile, the authors' antidote to the American sicknessa quest for democratic community that draws on our diverse civic and religious traditionshas contributed to a vigorous scholarly and popular debate. Attention has been focused on forms of social organization, be it civil society, democratic communitarianism, or associative democracy, that can humanize the market and the administrative state. In their new Introduction the authors relate the argument of their book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future. With this new edition one of the most influential books of recent times takes on a new immediacy.\

Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life

The End of History and the Last Man

In the present paper a research has been done on the essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak’ by’ Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’. It has been explained into much simpler language about what the author conveys for better understanding and further references. Also the criticism has been done by various critiques from various sources which is helpful from examination point of view. The paper has been divided into various contexts with an introduction and the conclusions. Also the references has been written that depicts the sources of criticism.

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Can the Subaltern Speak

The main purpose of this paper is to examine Habermas's account of the transformation of the public sphere in modern society. More specifically, the study aims to demonstrate that, whilst Habermas's approach succeeds in offering useful insights into the structural transformation of the public sphere in the early modern period, it does not provide an adequate theoretical framework for understanding the structural transformation of public spheres in late modern societies. To the extent that the gradual differentiation of social life manifests itself in the proliferation of multiple public spheres, a critical theory of public normativity needs to confront the challenges posed by the material and ideological complexity of late modernity in order to account for the polycentric nature of advanced societies. With the aim of showing this, the paper is divided into three sections. The first section elucidates the sociological meaning of the public/private dichotomy. The second section scrutinizes the key features of Habermas's theory of the public sphere by reflecting on (i) the concept of the public sphere, (ii) the normative specificity of the bourgeois public sphere, and (iii) the structural transformation of the public sphere in modern society. The third section explores the most substantial shortcomings of Habermas's theory of the public sphere, particularly its inability to explain the historical emergence and political function of differentiated public spheres in advanced societies.

https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1101/1/simon susen 'critical notes on habermass theory of the public sphere' sa 5(1) pp 37-62.pdf

Critical Notes on Habermas's Theory of the Public Sphere

Robin Celikates’s recent book, entitled Kritik als soziale Praxis. Gesellschaftliche Selbstverstandigung und kritische Theorie (Criticism as Social Practice: Social Self-Understanding and Critical Theory), published by Campus Verlag in 2009, is undoubtedly one of the most significant contributions made to the field of critical theory over the past few years. If there is one major problem with this volume, it is the fact that it has still not been translated into, let alone published in, English. Given the conceptual precision, methodological rigour, intellectual originality, and thought-provoking argument of this study, one can only hope the volume will soon be available in English, so that its timely relevance and scholarly quality can be appreciated by a wider international readership in general and by Anglophone researchers working in the humanities and social sciences in particular. It is not often that one reads a book from cover to cover and has the pleasant experience of noticing that every single paragraph, and indeed every single sentence, is carefully crafted, meticulously organized, and thoroughly researched. One must congratulate the author for putting together a long-needed treasure of a book which makes a convincing case for the view that the very possibility of critical theory depends on its capacity to ground itself in the normative potentials and everyday disputes of society, rather than in the abstract concepts and sterile epistemic frameworks of armchair philosophy. In order to illustrate the complexity of Celikates’s ambitious endeavour, this review article shall provide a succinct overview of the main arguments and contributions, as well as of several noteworthy shortcomings and limitations, of Kritik als soziale Praxis.

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Kritische Gesellschaftstheorie or Kritische Gesellschaftspraxis ? Robin Celikates, Kritik als soziale Praxis. Gesellschaftliche Selbstverständigung und kritische Theorie (Frankfurt am Main, Campus Verlag, 2009).

The main purpose of this paper is to shed light on Pierre Bourdieu’s conception of language. Although he has dedicated a significant part of his work to the study of language and even though his analysis of language has been extensively discussed in the literature, almost no attention has been paid to the fact that Bourdieu’s account of language is based on a number of ontological presuppositions, that is, on a set of universal assumptions about the very nature of language. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature by offering a detailed overview of 10 key features which, from a Bourdieusian point of view, can be regarded as inherent in language. On the basis of this enquiry, the study seeks to demonstrate that—contrary to common belief—there is not only a Bourdieusian sociology of language but also a Bourdieusian philosophy of language, which provides a useful theoretical framework for examining the unavoidable conditions of the real speech situation. The paper draws to a close by reflecting o...

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Bourdieusian Reflections on Language: Unavoidable Conditions of the Real Speech Situation

"Introduction 1. From Modern to Postmodern Epistemology? The "Relativist Turn" 2. From Modern to Postmodern Methodology? The "Interpretive Turn" 3. From Modern to Postmodern Sociology? The "Cultural Turn" 4. From Modern to Postmodern Historiography? The "Contingent Turn" 5. From Modern to Postmodern Politics? The "Autonomous Turn" 6. Critical Reflections on Postmodern Thought: Limitations of the "Postmodern Turn" Conclusion "

The 'Postmodern Turn' in the Social Sciences

In this lucid and novel examination of the concept of the social in contemporary critical thought, Simon Susen argues that we can only identify solid grounds for social critique by identifying the grounds of the social itself. The book draws upon the work of Jurgen Habermas and Pierre Bourdieu, and offers a model for the reconstruction of Habermasian critical theory and Bourdieusian reflexive sociology. These two theoretical approaches have been dominant influences in contemporary social theory. Susen explores how both conceptualise the social, and identifies the shortcomings of the Habermasian 'communicative approach' and the Bourdieusian 'homological approach'. He offers a method for overcoming their most significant shortcomings in terms of an alternative, five-dimensional approach to the nature of the social.

Simon Susen

Papers

Critical Notes on Habermas's Theory of the Public Sphere

Kritische Gesellschaftstheorie or Kritische Gesellschaftspraxis ? Robin Celikates, Kritik als soziale Praxis. Gesellschaftliche Selbstverständigung und kritische Theorie (Frankfurt am Main, Campus Verlag, 2009).

Bourdieusian Reflections on Language: Unavoidable Conditions of the Real Speech Situation

The 'Postmodern Turn' in the Social Sciences

The Foundations of the Social: Between Critical Theory and Reflexive Sociology