The Concept and Method of Public History based on an Archive Platform in Light of Theories of of Public Sphere and Communicative Action

This paper is about historical theory and public history based on an archive platform, and is deeply related to modern German history as the background of the topic. What is public history? Why should we do it? What should we do? There has been a lot of discussion about this question. In order to understand the concept of public history, it would be meaningful to understand and analyze the period when the entity of public history was established and the process and aspects of its development from a historical perspective. However, the author believes that the concept, meaning, and methods of public history can be established more deeply and broadly by reflecting on Jürgen Habermas's theories of public sphere and the communicative action. This is because public history fundamentally includes the nature of a public sphere. A society of public opinion can play an important role in understanding history and determining its direction. Here, we understand public history as history unfolding in the public sphere, and its method can be seen as an act of communication. Publicness and participation in public history are consistent with the nature of the public sphere. There was a great change in archival science, and as seen in the case of Hans Booms and his subsequent generations. They led a movement to find standards for evaluating records in the public sphere and public opinion. In particular, with the development of the digital age, they began to focus on the social role of archive platforms for the public sphere. This development of the situation became the main background that made public history based on an archive platform possible. Habermas, who saw changes in the public sphere in the direction of collapse along with the progress of capitalist society, diagnosed the digital platform era as a new structural change in the public sphere. Habermas, who believes that digital platforms cannot prevent the distortion of facts above all else, expresses great concern and presents a pessimistic outlook. The author presents a vision for solving these problems through an archive platform and foresees the development of a public sphere based on the archive platform.