GEOG | Public Space Department of Geography Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies York University Summer 2012 Class 3 Theorizing the Public Sphere Class 3 15 May GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris

Habermas and the Public Sphere Jurgen Habermas (b. 1929) and the bourgeois public sphere; see The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (English ed., 1989) ‘Representational’ culture under feudalism in Europe Shift in th century: salons, coffee houses, newspapers, other spaces emerged where intellectuals, writers and the bourgeoisie at large debated issues of public interest – rational dialogue and exchange; civil society; participatory democracy Public sphere existed in a space between the state (the sphere of public authority) and private life – it opened up room for in/formal criticism of governance. Idea that a legitimate government listens to “enlightened debate” occurring in the public sphere. According to Habermas, the contemporary public sphere has decayed with the rise of mass media, corporate capitalism and the welfare state (which, he argues, have removed agency from constituents) Where the public sphere continues to exist, it engages in (crass?) competition for government resources (one thinks of public lobby groups) rather than focusing on the (rational) public good. Democracy has become representative rather than participatory. Habermas’ public sphere: participatory democracy, civil society, ‘universal’ access and rational exchange Class 3 15 May 2012 GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris 2

Nancy Fraser on Counter-Publics Nancy Fraser is a prominent challenger of Habermas’ perspectives on the public sphere Liberal democracy (as Habermas, among others, envision it) is sorely limited and direly in need of critique [so too is the socialist project for its reliance on the authoritarian, imperative state]. One problem is that Habermas idealizes the public sphere; that in practice access to it was sharply and forcibly delimited: women, minorities, workers, the poor, criminals, etc. were excluded almost entirely, and their interests relegated to the ‘private’ domain. ‘Civil society’ was limited to bourgeois men and ‘rational’ exchange equated with masculinist forms of discourse. Competing public spheres? Women and minorities. Class 3 15 May 2012 GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris 3

Four criticisms of the Bourgeois Public Sphere 1.That status may ever truly be ‘bracketed’ and that people may ever discuss matters ‘as if’ they were equals; 2.That multiple (or competing) publics are perceived to undermine the strength of the public sphere; that a unified public sphere must be envisioned (consider ‘groupthink’); 3.That discourse must or can ever be restricted to matters of the ‘public good,’ and that ‘private’ (e.g., domestic) matters must ever be excluded; 4.That the public sphere rests upon a sharp distinction between civil society and the state. [See also Iris Marion Young’s theoretical contributions to analyses of democracy and the public sphere.] Class 3 15 May 2012 GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris 4

Who speaks for: Women Minorities Children the elderly The mental ill, physically sick or cognitively incompetent Presons with disabilities People who are not conventionally sexed or gendered The traumatized Non-citizens, refugees, displaced persons The poor The busy The disengaged...? Class 3 15 May 2012 GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris 5

The Importance of ‘Subaltern Counterpublics’ Because the public sphere is deeply stratified, even if those stratifications are (conveniently?) invisible to bourgeois actors to raise issues excluded from the bourgeois public sphere To rethink the public-private distinction To make room for voices that might not otherwise be heard or heeded To create new ways of thinking or speaking about public issues, and to make ‘private’ issues part of the public domain To acknowledge ‘social identities’ and the need to speak “in one’s own voice” To challenge the notion that the (welfare) state is anathema to a strong public sphere – the welfare state helps resolve social inequalities that are barriers to participation. Class 3 15 May 2012 GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris 6

Public Address and Public Space “Public texts of one sort or another circulate through streets, parks, cinemas, bookshops and newsagents, homes, cafes and internet cafes, libraries, town halls and parliamentary buildings, convention centres, university seminar and lecture rooms, workplace noticeboards, public transportation facilities...” [Kurt Iveson, Publics and the City] Forms of public address: – Verbal exchange in a particular place (people co-present in space; direct) – A poster or notice in a public place (indirect) – Media: television, newspapers, books, websites, social media (once removed) – Laws, statutes, acts (twice removed) Class 3 15 May 2012 GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris 7

‘Where’ is the Public Sphere The idea of the ‘sphere’ as physical territory or map “Offentlichkeit” = “openness” or “publicness” Translucency or transparency (vs. Opacity) A “public geography” traversed through social texts. Class 3 15 May 2012 GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris 8

Public Space Interventions Often associated with public art (but more involved) ‘do’ something with a space, especially with users’ experiences of particular places May be permanent or transient Motivated by: challenge to regulation and surveillance, perceived social or economic inequalities, general passivity, environmental degradation May be: fun, political, thought-provoking, irrelevant Class 3 15 May 2012 GEOG 4900 | Public Space Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris 9