Contemporary Theories and Definitions

This section features contemporary literature addressing the conceptual space of the keywords of the public sphere, such as public culture and the capacity for reasoned public choice (public reason, considered public opinion). For Jürgen Habermas’ work and contemporary literature from other analysts of the public sphere, see the section on Traditions of Public Sphere Analysis.

  • Calhoun, Craig. 1993. “Civil Society and the Public Sphere.” Public Culture 10:267-280.
  • —. 1996. “Social Theory and the Public Sphere.” Pp. 429-470 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory, edited by Turner, Bryan S. Oxford (UK)/Malden (MA): Blackwell. Distinguishing public spheres in which identity-formation and formation of social solidarities figure more prominently and those in which reasoned debate and public choice are more prominent though the former mechanism is always a significant part of the latter.
  • —. 2002. “Imagining Solidarity: Cosmopolitanism, Constitutional Patriotism and the Public Sphere.” Public Culture 14:147-72.
  • —. 2003. “Information Technology and the International Public Sphere.” Pp. 229-251 in Shaping the Network Society: The New Role of Civil Society in Cyberspace, edited by Schuler, Douglas, and Peter Day. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
  • D’Agostino, Fred, and Gerald F. Gaus, eds. 1998. Public Reason. Aldershot (Hampshire, UK): Ashgate.
  • Ferree, Myra Marx, William A. Gamson, Jürgen Gerhards, and Dieter Rucht. 2002. “Four Models of the Public Sphere in Modern Democracies.” Theory and Society 289-324.
  • Gaus, Gerald F. 2003. Contemporary Theories of Liberalism: Public Reason as a Post-Enlightenment Project. London: Sage.
  • Gerhards, Jürgen, and Friedhelm Neidhardt. 1991. “Strukturen und Funktionen moderner Öffentlichkeit: Fragestellungen und Ansätze.” [1990] Pp. 31-89 in Öffentlichkeit, Kultur, Massenkommunikation: Beiträge zur Medien- und Kommunikationssoziologie, edited by Müller-Doohm, Stefan, and Klaus Neumann-Braun. Oldenburg: bis.
  • Hilgartner, Stephen, and Charles L. Bosk. 1988. “The Rise and Fall of Social Problems: A Public Arenas Model.” American Journal of Sociology 53-78.
  • Ikegami, Eiko. 2000. “A Sociological Theory of Publics: Identity and Culture as Emergent Properties in Networks.” Social Research 67:989-1029.
  • Imhof, Kurt. 2006. “Moderne: Öffentlichkeit und sozialer Wandel.” Pp. 185-211 in Die Diskontinuität der Moderne: Zur Theorie des sozialen Wandels. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
  • Mische, Ann, and Harrison C. White. 1998. “Between Conversation and Situation: Public Switching Dynamics across Network Domains.” Social Research 65:695-724.
  • Neidhardt, Friedhelm, ed. 1994. Öffentlichkeit, öffentliche Meinung, soziale Bewegungen. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Sonderheft 34, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
  • Peters, Bernhard. 2008. Public Deliberation and Public Culture: The Writings of Bernhard Peters, 1993 – 2005. Foreword by Jürgen Habermas, edited by Wessler, Hartmut. Basingstoke (Hampshire): Palgrave.
  • Somers, Margaret R. 1993. “Citizenship and the Place of the Public Sphere: Law, Community, and Political Culture in the Transition to Democracy.” American Sociological Review 58:587-620.
  • —. 1995. “What’s Political or Cultural about Political Culture and the Public Sphere?: Toward an Historical Sociology of Concept Formation.” Sociological Theory 13:113-144.
  • —. 1995. “Narrating and Naturalizing Civil Society and Citizenship Theory: The Place of Political Culture and the Public Sphere.” Sociological Theory 13:229-274.
  • Warner, Michael. 2002. Publics and Counterpublics. New York: Zone Books.
  • Weintraub, Jeff, and Krishan Kumar, eds. 1997. Public and Private in Thought and Practice: Perspectives on a Grand Dichotomy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.