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

该项目旨在从理论上和经验上考察公共领域形成的可能性，即公民在互联网基础上通过理性沟通和辩论构建公共意见的社会空间。哈贝马斯的公共领域理想观具有两个基本特征，一是通过理性交往行为再现社会空间的建构，二是自我参照批判：在公共领域建构的公共舆论不仅批判政治制度，而且批判市民社会和公共领域本身。从理论的角度来看，互联网被认为是实现这两个方面的理想环境。然而，从经验的角度来看，在互联网中发现了矛盾的取向：一方面，互联网使独立于现有社会关系的自主社会网络的形成成为可能，但另一方面，它又使匿名行为者的各种社会偏差成为可能。在实证案例分析之前，将互联网公共领域划分为微观和宏观两个模型。微观公共领域是公民个人参与的社会空间，他们通过对文化、社会或政治问题的交流和辩论来构建自己的身份。宏观公共领域是非政府组织（NGO）或非营利组织（NPO）等有组织的行动者在其中发挥核心作用，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原始数据（包括互联网上的数据）检查了经验案例。因此，两国在互联网上形成的微公共领域也经常出现。然而，宏观公共领域的具体例子在美国已经有了，但在日本还很少有。

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.