Canine Citizenship and the Intimate Public Sphere.

This essay discusses the possibilities and problems of canine citizenship and how contemporary dogs in the U.S. figure into an intimate public sphere. It examines the relationship of these animals to the bourgeois public sphere. It states that the bourgeois public sphere originated in the 18th century with the emergence of commercial capitalism and the circulation of printed information. It adds that the production of canine citizens may show the limitations of the Habermasian public sphere by stressing how its participants fail to meet its standards.