Category Archives: Critical Theory

Habermas and Strategic Versus Communicative Action

In this fourth in a sequence of blogs on the theories of Jurgen Habermas I move on to consider his use of the concepts of lifeworld and system. These receive their fullest expression in his magisterial two-volume ‘Theory of Communicative Action’, although many of the theories pre-existed this treatise. One enduring problem Habermas set out… Read More »

Habermas and Crisis Tendencies

I think Habermas’ ‘Legitimation Crisis’ one of his more neglected books. Published in Germany in the early 1970s it has proved remarkably perspicacious. In this third blog on his work I give a brief outline of his argument, then ask why I judge it so compelling and what salience it has now. In the era… Read More »

Habermas, Civil Society and the Public Sphere

This blog is the second in a short series on the work of Habermas and issues that arise from it. The focus is on the notions of civil society and the public sphere and how these have changed as spaces of resistance and unrest. Habermas’ early study of the rise of the bourgeois public sphere,… Read More »

An Introduction to Habermas

Jurgen Habermas is less discussed than he was even a decade ago, but having written of the relevance of his work for health and health care I am still occasionally asked to give talks on applications of his theories to the health domain. Hence this first in a short series of blogs. All I am… Read More »