Knowledge society and the problem of a global public sphere

International audienceThe idea of a "public sphere" is the modern conception of society and within society of what constitute or should constitute the political. The history of modern democracy is the history of the various institutional arrangements designed to express in each nation the possibility or reality of a "public sphere". The idea of a "global public sphere" is the present extension and projection of basic Euro-American assumptions. As a by-product of economic globalization, the formation of a "global public sphere" leads to a paradox. The anticipated effect of globalization is an advance of democracy in countries or nations where economic growth is taking place. But this advancement is contradicted by the political reforms induced by the economic globalization process. Finally it does not take into account the mutation of the conception, organization and role of knowledge in the evolution of societies and in their relations