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The public sphere, as conceived by Habermas (1989) and expanded upon by Calhoun
(1992), and Thomassen (2010), is the ideal for rational communication and the basis upon which
multiple forms of civic engagement and public discourse rest. Habermas detailed the development,
rise, and fall of the public sphere during a period spanning from the 17th to the 19th century.
Habermas’ public sphere evolved from the notion of separation in private and public functions.
From a societal standpoint, the public sphere was a space where “citizens would come together to
deliberate and govern” (Thomassen, 2010, p. 36). As the notion of governance aligned with the
separation of public and private functions, the “bourgeois public sphere” (Habermas, 1989)
emerged. Habermas (1987) described the characteristics of the bourgeois public sphere as:
• A place where private people come together as a public
• The public, composed of a grouping of private individuals, who challenged the government
about the regulations of commodity exchange and labor issues; and
• The use of confrontation and reason to arrive at collective thought. (p. 27)
Thomassen (2010) suggested that the bourgeois sphere was an outgrowth of capitalism,
stating that, “A new class of capitalists—the bourgeois class—was primarily based in towns and
cities” (p. 37). Over time, the public sphere evolved as the public citizenry gathered for dialogue
and deliberation achieved greater education, and thus a more informed capacity for rational
discourse and critique. In earlier WISR papers, socialization of education, narrative discourse and
media messaging were examined for their power to reproduce dominant/dominated relations
external to the discourse, but which penetrate the social relations, media of transmission, and
evaluation of pedagogic discourse. John Dewey is probably most famous for his role in what is
called progressive education. Progressive education is essentially a view of education that
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