The Question Concerning Public

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The Question Concerning Public

• CCFI 502 Theorizing KnowingJanuary 17, 2008

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The Question Concerning Public

• How do we talk about publics differently?
• Jürgen Habermas (1962). The Structural
  Transformation of the Public Sphere
• Four conditions for the public sphere
• 1. Status was disregarded entirely
• 2. "Discussion within such a public presupposed
  the
• problematization of areas that until then had
  not been
• questioned
• 3. Things were decided by rational discussion
• 4. The public was inclusive by nature (From
  wikipedia, Public Sphere)

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The Question Concerning Public

• Nancy Fraser says
• The concept of public needs to be
  revisited Historiography Social
  Inequity Critical Theory
• The public and a public(s) or subaltern
  counterpublics-Habermas four assumptions
• -as if
• -Multiplicity of publics and their functions (p.
  124)
• -Notions of private and public
• -Weak publics and Strong publics
• more on pbwikiQuestions/Critiques
  
  -How do we avoid cultural relativism in this
  model?-How is a counterpublic formed and
  mediated (connection to Warner)?

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The Question Concerning Public

• Michael Warner says
• We need to talk about how a public is
  formed Discourse Circulation of Texts Queer
  Theory/Post-structuralism
• Publics are formed by self-organizing discourses
  -Texts
• -Cultural forms
• -Strangers
• -Poetic world making
• more on pbwiki
• Questions/Critiques
  -Is social
  imaginary enough for change? Where is hope?
• -His articulation of artifacts/technology is too
  narrow/discriminatory
• 
  

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The Question Concerning Public

• What do we say?