Participation, representation and media system: Habermasian paths to the past
(2010) In Culture Unbound. Journal of Current Cultural Research- Abstract
- Drawing from Swedish press history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the present article argues for further historical investigation into three aspects of Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere. The first concerns actual media participation, the second the representative features of media institutions, and the third media systems. These routes of analysis can and should be combined, and historical specificity is key. When we focus on concrete situations and places, the neat grand-scale chronologies (Habermas’ and others’) fall short. There is no simple development from a “representative publicness” to a participatory public sphere, and back again. And the media have always been interconnected in a system-like way. However,... (More)
- Drawing from Swedish press history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the present article argues for further historical investigation into three aspects of Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere. The first concerns actual media participation, the second the representative features of media institutions, and the third media systems. These routes of analysis can and should be combined, and historical specificity is key. When we focus on concrete situations and places, the neat grand-scale chronologies (Habermas’ and others’) fall short. There is no simple development from a “representative publicness” to a participatory public sphere, and back again. And the media have always been interconnected in a system-like way. However, historical specificity does not exclude contemporary developments. The present conclusion is that if we are to gain any true understanding of contemporary phenomena, a historical perspective is crucial, and aspects of Habermas’ theory can serve as heuristic tools. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1567297
- author
- Lundell, Patrik LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2010
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Culture Unbound. Journal of Current Cultural Research
- publisher
- Linköping University Electronic Press
- ISSN
- 2000-1525
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Media history (012021004), Department of Communication and Media (HT) (LUR00050)
- id
- 06cff55d-f67c-4c8b-b293-0984f5b74110 (old id 1567297)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 09:14:16
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 20:51:43
@article{06cff55d-f67c-4c8b-b293-0984f5b74110, abstract = {{Drawing from Swedish press history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the present article argues for further historical investigation into three aspects of Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere. The first concerns actual media participation, the second the representative features of media institutions, and the third media systems. These routes of analysis can and should be combined, and historical specificity is key. When we focus on concrete situations and places, the neat grand-scale chronologies (Habermas’ and others’) fall short. There is no simple development from a “representative publicness” to a participatory public sphere, and back again. And the media have always been interconnected in a system-like way. However, historical specificity does not exclude contemporary developments. The present conclusion is that if we are to gain any true understanding of contemporary phenomena, a historical perspective is crucial, and aspects of Habermas’ theory can serve as heuristic tools.}}, author = {{Lundell, Patrik}}, issn = {{2000-1525}}, language = {{eng}}, publisher = {{Linköping University Electronic Press}}, series = {{Culture Unbound. Journal of Current Cultural Research}}, title = {{Participation, representation and media system: Habermasian paths to the past}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5269168/4022485}}, year = {{2010}}, }