Waltraud Ernst (ed.), Plural medicine, tradition and modernity, 1800–2000, Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine, London and New York, Routledge, 2002, pp. xiii, 253, £60.00 (hardback 0-415-23122-1) (original) (raw)
AI-generated Abstract
This edited volume explores the interplay between public and private medicine from the early modern period to the 20th century, focusing on how institutions shaped the public sphere, with contributions from various authors reflecting on themes such as public health, voluntary hospitals, and medical secrecy. The volume aims to fill a historiographical gap regarding the role of medicine in societal transformations, aligning with Jürgen Habermas's public sphere concept while arguing for a more institutional perspective in understanding historical medical practices.
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2011
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.
On the Degeneration of the Public Sphere
Political Studies, 1985
The paper interprets C. Wright Mills's distinction between 'private troubles' and 'public issues' as indicating both a conceptual and an institutional separation between civil society and the public sphere. It goes on to argue that Habermas's social theory is founded upon the view that 'distorted communication' should be analysed within an already institutionalized public space within civil society. Arguments that claim that the public sphere is degenerate on historical or theoretical grounds are rejected. The paper differentiates between pre-institutional and institutional levels of the public sphere and concludes by illustrating this conceptual distinction, first, through a brief discussion of 'new social movements' and Alain Touraine's actionist sociology, and secondly, through a discussion of natural justice and public inquiries.
If we are to believe what many sociologists are telling us, the public sphere is in a near-terminal state. Our ability to build solidarities with strangers and to agree on the general significance of needs and problems seems to be collapsing. These cultural potentials appear endangered from a variety of quarters: from the neo-liberal attempt to universalize the norms of the market and interpret democracy as another form of consumerism to the most recent efforts of the security state to constrain civil liberties in the face of terrorism. For the past four decades the public sphere has been at the top of Jürgen Habermas' theoretical agenda. He has explored the historical meaning of the concept, reconstructed its philosophical foundations in communication and repeatedly diagnosed its ongoing crises. In the contemporary climate, a systematic look at Habermas' lifelong project of rescuing the modern public sphere seems an urgent task.
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