Laurier2007
Laurier2007 | |
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BibType | ARTICLE |
Key | Laurier2007 |
Author(s) | Eric Laurier, Chris Philo |
Title | “A parcel of muddling muckworms”: revisiting Habermas and the English coffee house |
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Tag(s) | EMCA, Cafes, Habermas, Public Space |
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Year | 2007 |
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Journal | Social and Cultural Geography |
Volume | 8 |
Number | 2 |
Pages | 259–281 |
URL | Link |
DOI | 10.1080/14649360701360212 |
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Abstract
In the context of a research project concerned with contemporary cafés, the authors have revisited Habermas's famous 1962/1989 work on the transformation of the ‘public sphere’, wherein the figure of the early-modern English coffee-house holds considerable significance. The outlines of Habermas's claims are inspected, and three lines of critique—to do with spatiality, sociability and practices—are held up against his depiction of coffee-houses as contained and egalitarian spaces of calm rational-critical debate. Theoretical work is combined with a re-reading of Habermas's fragmentary notes on the coffee-house, together with borrowings from both secondary texts and republished primary sources. The chief aim is to develop critical materials to inform further inquiry into coffee-houses and similar establishments, past and present, as sites for the practical conduct of public life.
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