The Public Sphere is the concept of an area in social life that allows all individuals to freely discuss societal problems. In principle, a Public Sphere would be anything that allows anyone to engage in a political discussion. Jürgen Habermas, a social theorist committed to the project of the Enlightenment, says that the Public Sphere is a place where informed citizens have a rational debate following an Ideal Speech Situation (ISS), where all parties take turns to make an argument.
An issue with the ISS is that to decide who starts arguing tends to be set by the social position of one group. Many contexts of moral interaction and political conflict involve groups from two different parties with different social and cultural backgrounds. Because of this social and cultural difference, these parties often stand in different positions on privilege and oppression (Young, 1997). Habermas believes that moral dialogue requires people to adopt an impartial point of view towards all particular experiences and to acknowledge the principles and judgments consistent with the impartial view, but Young believes this makes those who start the argument adopt the perspective of the opposing party. Iris Young argues that the idea of reversing perspectives is incoherent because of the social and cultural predisposition, the standpoint of those starting the argument in a particular situation will be partly a result of our experiences. A recent example of this argument is the highly conservative idea that - if someone’s poor, is because they don’t work enough-.
Young furthers this argument by saying that to recognise the other person is to acknowledge that that person is an “I” to himself and that for him, someone else would be an “other”. Despite the fact that this structure is a condition of communication, it doesn’t describe a reversibility of standpoints. This idea of reversing perspectives makes those who are more privileged make assumptions influenced by their privilege and can lead to misrepresenting the other’s situation. This can lead to the use of stereotypes and damaging stereotypes can be used to undermine the respect of those in oppressed groups (Young, 1997). During the formulation of the 1931 Spanish constitution, the idea of giving women the right to vote was almost set back by the belief that female voter would not vote because the policies each party presented, they would vote for the most handsome candidate. However, this is not the only issue Young describes. She also defends that in a society were a structure social injustice exists, perspectives brought to a situation might not be equally legitimate as the privileged party might seek to preserve its privilege.
To conclude, the Habermasian structure of a rational critical debate presents problematic assumptions he did not take into account. The idea that all parties are expected to make truthful claims about a subject in a society with societal prejudice can be considered utopian. The Idea Speech Situation tends to favour the privileged group and it can be argued that it can damage the integrity of certain groups of people.
Habermas, J. (1970). Towards a theory of communicative competence. Inquiry, [Online] 13(1-4). Available from: doi:10.1080/00201747008601597 [Acessed 21 Feb. 2017]
Hernández, A. (1997) Pedagogy, Democracy, and Feminism: Rethinking the Public Sphere [ebook] New York: State University of New York Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=oZv8F6W1vFMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=feminism+in+the+public+sphere&ots=GdXRQ9eZva&sig=kABJ70fdkY_2vZoZcSNX1LkQ8Bs#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 21 Feb. 2017].
La Vanguardia (2011) Se cumplen 80 años del sufragio femenino [Online] La Vanguardia. Available at: http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20111001/54223717009/se-cumplen-80-anos-del-sufragio-femenino.html [Accessed 22 Feb. 2017].
Young, I. (1997) Intersecting Voices: Dilemmas of Gender, Political Philosophy, and Policy [ebook] Chichester: Princeton University Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7AosnEfS7wQC&pg=PA41&dq=ASYMMETRICAL+RECIPROCITY:+ON+MORAL+RESPECT,+WONDER,+AND+ENLARGED+THOUGHT%E2%80%A0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF2K2otJ_SAhXGK5oKHYleD-0Q6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 21 Feb. 2017].
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