A brief statement explaining the thinking behind this blog:

We believe that blogs and wikis play an important role and can be valuable tools for the creation and maintenance of a critical public sphere. The political philosopher and critical discourse analyst Jürgen Habermas offers some thought on the future of public spheres and the upholding of critical discourse, by drawing parallels between what happened to public writing spheres upon the arrival of mass media and commercialism and what is happening in the blogosphere of today. Mass media put paid to the public writing environments of old as the role of communities of interest and private persons diminished into insignificance. The Internet may suffer a similar fate unless we strive to establish sustainable structures for upholding a critical dialogue on our blogs and on other tools we have at our disposal. If we wish to counterbalance the ongoing dumbing down of our public spaces we should start on our own doorsteps.

Thank you,

Utting-Wolff