A esfera pública Habermasiana frente ao fenômeno das "bolhas" nas redes sociais : impactos na democracia contemporânea.

Abstract

The following work is limited to investigating the possible impacts of social networks and information technologies on the Habermasian public sphere and on contemporary democracies. To this end, the research problem aimed to answer to what extent do the "bubbles" formed in social networks impact the Habermasian public sphere and, consequently, contemporary democracy? To this end, a general objective was defined, and three specific objectives, the latter constituted the respective chapters of the dissertation. The general objective was to investigate the impacts of bubbles and technologies formed and used in social networks on the Habermasian public sphere. The first specific objective delimited the evolution of democracy and its relationship with contemporary constitutionalism; the second investigated the public sphere in Habermas as a presupposition for the formation of rational arguments that are sustainable and publicly acceptable; and the third specific objective identified the possible impacts of bubbles and information technologies on the Habermasian public sphere and on contemporary democracy. The area of concentration is established in Social Rights and Public Policies, in the research line of Contemporary Constitutionalism and the theme to be researched involves thinking about the impacts of information technologies and communication bubbles on the Habermasian public sphere and consequently on contemporary democratic models. The advisor works in the discipline of Theories of Democracy in the Graduate Program in Law at Unisc – Stricto Sensu Specialization – Master's and Doctorate, having vast knowledge on topics related to Political Philosophy, Law and Democracy, which justifies the choice of the theme to be deepened.The method used was the hypothetical-deductive method, which aimed to confirm or reject the pre-defined hypotheses based on the findings, and the procedure used was the bibliographic one, which was based on books, scientific articles, and other materials from indicated and referred authors. In an overview, the first chapter presents democracy, its historical evolution and its relationship with contemporary constitutionalism. The second chapter focuses on the Habermasian public sphere, idea and procedure, and how this serves as the basis for a proposed model of deliberative democracy, considered by Habermas to be more adequate, inclusive and efficient. The third and last chapter addresses information technologies, the bubbles formed in virtual environments and social networks, and their potential for manipulative use, bringing to the end the impacts on the Habermasian public sphere and democratic models. Among the results, it was possible to confirm the hypothesis that the use of social networks and information technologies significantly impact the Habermasian public sphere and contemporary democratic models, since the communication that occurs through social networks and digital spaces does not go through the necessary in-depth transparent public debate, which enables the formation of echo chambers of low democratic interaction. where there is a predominance of arguments from only a portion of the whole, as a result of the isolation caused by the algorithm and the "bubbles" that occur in these spaces.