Habermas on Civil Society, Lifeworld and System: Unearthing the Social in Transformation Theory

Abstract

Abstract: The debate as to whether transformative learning theory takes adequate account of the social has contributed to the clarification and development of the theory. But this debate has been, to a great extent, framed within transformation theory. This paper outlines some key ideas from Jürgen Habermas- civil society, public sphere, lifeworld and system, democracy and discourse- that are crucial to unearthing the social in transformation theory. Discursive democracy is proposed as an antidote to lifeworld colonization and the uncoupling of system and lifeworld. The intellectual genesis of transformation theory, as detailed by Habermas, has the practical intent of working for transformation of the lifeworld and also for institutional and system change that is redefined in this paper as a process of discursifying the system. Transformation theory has been critiqued on the basis that it does not have an