Rights, Responsibilities & Imagination in Digital Public Spheres

• In Event: Habermas's Structural Transformation of the Digital Public Sphere

Abstract

Habermas’ The New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere offers an insightful analysis of the threats that online communication poses to the maintenance of an inclusive public sphere in democratic societies. It raises the important question of how to properly allocate rights and responsibilities among all relevant actors (social media platforms, users, governments, citizens, international agencies, etc.) to enable an inclusive and well-informed political debate in the public sphere. Although I agree that a better distribution of responsibilities is urgently needed, I argue that it may nonetheless be insufficient for preventing an increased fragmentation of the public sphere. The potential limits of a rights-and-responsibilities approach raises the question of whether there are alternative institutional developments that could help counteract the negative effects of fragmentation and polarization on the public sphere in democratic societies. As a tentative answer, I explore the potential contribution that citizens’ assemblies and other deliberative minipublics may make to the maintenance of an inclusive political public sphere.

Author

• Cristina Lafont, Northwestern University