public sphere (Öffentlichkeit) Habermas, Jürgen’s term for any realm of social life in which public opinion can be formed. It comes into existence whenever a forum is created in which citizens can express their opinions concerning topics of general---i.e. public---interest, and those opinions can be subjected to critical debate. The public sphere should be open to all citizens and everyone within it should be treated equally. Examples of possible public spheres include newspapers, magazines, radio news, TV news, and of course the Internet, but it should be noted not all of these entities necessarily satisfy the democratic rule concerning access and freedom to express opinion. Similarly, not everything that is expressed in these outlets is of public interest. In other words, public sphere is not simply another word for media. Habermas’s thesis is that the public sphere that arose in the early eighteenth century was eroded by the rise of what Foucault, Michel called biopower, the intervention of the state. Public spheres are historical concepts and in Habermas’s view they can be thought of as being typical of their age.