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Dictionary definition: public sphere
- Article from:
- Dictionary of the Social Sciences
- Author:
Copyright© Dictionary of the Social Sciences 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. (Hide copyright information)
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public sphere and private sphere
The modern public sphere has two related meanings: it refers both to the open discussion among members of a collectivity about their common concerns and to the activities of the state that are central to defining that community. This double notion has its parallel in the private sphere. The private is simultaneously that which lies outside the purview of the state and that which concerns personal ends distinct from the public good—the
res publica
or matters of legitimate public concern.
The earliest discussions of the division between public and private spheres date to ancient Greece, where public referred to the realm of politics and private to the ...