Public Sphere and Experience

The “public sphere” is a key concept in political discourse, designating a space for political action. But is this a single authoritative and universal space in which various positions compete for recognition, or does it consist of multiple local spaces spread over diverse collectivities? In Kluge and Negt’s groundbreaking book they examine the material conditions of experience in an arena that had previously figured only as an abstract term: the media of mass and consumer culture.

With a new, up-to-date introduction from Alexander Kluge.Alexander Kluge is one of the major German fiction writers of the late twentieth century as well as filmmaker, director, screenwriter and an important social critic.

Oskar Negt is an award-winning filmmaker, TV producer, theorist and editor. He is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hannover.