从理性公众到情感公众:数字时代公共领域的理论嬗变

From Rational Publics to Affective Publics:Theoretical Transformation of the Public Sphere in the Digital Age

哈贝马斯出版于近六十年前的《公共领域的结构转型》在政治哲学、民主理论和媒介研究等领域有着跨学科的影响。此书构建了公共领域模型,虽然其规范标准的适用性一直存在争议,但它确实经常被用来检验现存国家民主化的可能性。在数字时代,经典公共领域理论的空间想象和以“分”为主的结构性特征受到极大挑战,但是数字媒体作为拉图尔意义上的技术“行动者”无疑重新引入了一种新的公共领域的可能。互联网技术的出现使我们有必要重新讨论公共领域的规范性,调整其标准以适应不断变化的媒介现实,从而有效地探讨新媒介环境如何可能在全球范围内促进新的民主实践。因此有必要厘清规范性公共领域理论所强调的结构性前提,引入“连接政治”和“情感公众”理论,用数字技术的超强“连接”取代“分离”的空间想象,并将“情感”纳入公共性的考察,以平衡自由主义对“理性”在政治生活中的绝对强调。

Published nearly 60 years ago,Jürgen Habermas′The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere has had an interdisciplinary impact in the fields of political philosophy,democratic theory,and media studies.In his book Habermas constructs a model of the public sphere,and although the ap-plicability of its normative criteria has been controversial,it is indeed frequently used to test the possibili-ty of democratization in existing countries.In the digital age,the spatial imagination and the"division"-based structural characteristics of the classical public sphere theory are greatly challenged,but digital media,as technological"actors"in Latour′s sense,have undoubtedly reintroduced the possibility of a new kind of public sphere.The emergence of Internet technologies makes it necessary to revisit the normativi-ty of the public sphere,adjust its standards to adapt to the changing media realities,and thus effectively explore how the new media environment can also contribute to new democratic practices on a global scale.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the structural premises emphasized by normative public sphere theories,introduce theories of"connective politics"and"affective publics"in an attempt to replace the"separated"spatial imagination with the hyper"connection"of digital technologies,and integrate"affection"into the examination of the publicity to balance the liberalism′s absolute emphasis on"rationality"in polit-ical life.