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Jurgen Habermas: Democracy and the Public Sphere (Modern European Thinkers)

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This academic book not only provides a concise history of the development of Habermas's concept of the public sphere and offers some critiques of it, but moves well beyond this frequently covered ground to show how the concept fits into some of Habermas's later writings on the theory of communicative action, discourse ethics, and social theory and politics. Goode looks at the criticisms of the notion of the public sphere, and while acknowledging its shortcomings (such as Habermas giving short shrift to the role of mediation in the public sphere), does an excellent job of showing its continued relevance for social theory today, such as discussing the public sphere in relation to Beck and Giddens's notions of the risk society and reflexive modernity. Goode provides insights on the public sphere and the Internet without ever falling into the tired argument on whether the Internet can be considered a public sphere or not.