The public sphere is ‘a domain of our social life in which such a thing as public opinion can be formed’ (Habermas, 1997: 105). It's a metaphor for thinking about how individual human beings come together to exchange ideas and information and feelings, about how large-scale communities manage themselves when too many individuals are involved to simply list the issues that affect them all and have each one explain, face to face, their position. It's a metaphor which keeps us focused on the distinction between individual, personal forms of representation — over which we have a large degree of control — and shared, consensual representations — which are never exactly what we would like to see precisely because they are shared (public). It's a liberal model which sees the individual human being as having an important input into the formation of the general will — as opposed to totalitarian or Marxist models, which see the state as ultimately powerful in deciding what people think. This is the public sphere.

With this framework in place, you can then go on to conduct your own research and thinking into what's happening within, and to, the public sphere. You can examine how these ideas, identities and emotions are generated, where they come from, who's listening to them, and who's talking back. You can do so without assuming as your starting point that the powerless masses, women, children or Black people are being manipulated by the formally educated elites of society.