A Sociological Study on the Formation of Public Spheres in the Internet

本研究旨在从理论和实证两个方面考察在互联网的基础上形成公共领域的可能性，即公民通过理性交流和辩论构建公共舆论的社会空间。哈贝马斯理想的公共领域概念具有两个基本方面的特征：(A)理性交往行为再现的社会空间的构建；(B)自我参照批判：在公共领域构建的公共舆论不仅批评政治制度，而且批评公民社会和公共领域本身。从理论角度来看，互联网被认为是实现这两个方面的理想环境。然而，从实证的角度来看，互联网中存在着矛盾取向：一方面，互联网使形成独立于现有社会关系的自治社会网络成为可能，另一方面，它又使匿名行为者的各种社会偏差成为可能。在分析实证案例之前，互联网公共领域分为微观和宏观两种模式。微观公共领域是公民个人参与的社会空间，他们通过交流和关于文化、社会或政治问题的辩论来构建自己的身份。宏观公共领域是非政府组织或非营利组织等有组织的行为者发挥核心作用，批评政治制度或参与政策制定的社会空间。在日本和美国，通过二手和一手数据(包括在互联网上)审查了经验性案例。因此，两国在互联网上形成微观公共领域的现象屡见不鲜。然而，宏观公共领域的具体例子在美国已经找到，但在日本还很少。

This project aimed to examine theoretically and empirically the possibilities of the formation of public spheres, the social spaces in which citizens construct public opinions through rational communications and debates, on the basis of the Internet.Habermas's ideal conception of the public sphere is characterized by two essential aspects, (a) the construction of social spaces reproduced by rational communicative actions,(b) self-referential critique : public opinions constructed in the public sphere criticize not only political system, but also the civil society and the public sphere itself.From the theoretical point of view, the Internet is considered to be an ideal circumstance for realizing these two aspects. However, from the empirical point of view, ambivalent orientations has been found in the Internet : on the one hand, the Internet made possible to form autonomous social networks independent of existing social relations, but on the other, it made possible various social deviations by anonymous actors.Before analyzing empirical cases, public spheres in the Internet are divided into two models : micro and macro. Micro public spheres are the social spaces in which individual citizens participate and they construct their identities through communications and debates on cultural, social or political problems. Macro public spheres are the social spaces in which organized actors like NGO or NPO play the central role and they criticize political system or participate in policy-makings. Empirical cases were examined in Japan and United States through secondary and primary data (including on the Internet). As a result, the formation of micro public spheres on the Internet are often found in both countries. However, concrete examples of macro public spheres are already found in United States, but hardly found in Japan yet.