Malcolm Miles

A Really-Possible Public Sphere?

Biogram

Malcolm Miles jest profesorem teorii kultury na Uniwersytecie w Plymouth, Wielka Brytania, gdzie przewodzi grupie badawczej Kultura-Teoria-Przestrzeń. Autor Urban Utopias (2008), Cities & Cultures (2007), Urban Avant-Gardes (2004) i Art Space & the City (1997), współ-autor Consuming Cities (2004, ze Stevenem Miles’em), i współredaktor City Cultures Reader (Drugie wydanie 2003, z Timem Hallem i Iain Borden). Publikuje w periodykach “Space & Culture”, “Urban Studies’” i “Parallax”. Obecnie prowadzi badania nad dziełami Herberta Marcuse’a oraz niektórymi aspektami sztuki późnej nowoczesności i współczesnej.

Projekt: A Really-Possible Public Sphere?

[Wersja polska już wkrótce!!!] The seminar is based on two papers prepared by Malcolm Miles and Krzysztof Nawratek. Excerpts could be found below.

"(...) Paper outlines the critical problem (with defining public sphere - przyp. red.), suggests cases of transitional zones of social formation as an alternative location for a potential public sphere; and argues for recognition of a more complex concept of a public sphere, or, more to the point, multiple and overlapping public spheres in which a society’s development remains always incomplete yet can be inflected in beneficial ways (towards a diminishing of present un-freedom)."

" In architectural vocabulary public spaces are defined as spaces where anybody can enter without charge – like parks, streets, squares etc. Contemporary public space is sometimes linked to the Greek's Agora - an archetypal space of political (democratic) action. Public space may also reflect Habermas' concept of a communicative public sphere. I would argue however, that public space is a misleading concept, preventing full understanding (and successful engagement) of complexity. There are (at least) three reasons for this:
- the concept is too narrow to effectively describe the phenomena of modern urban spaces such as shopping malls or thematic parks
- public space is not truly public, because it is defined according to social codes and conventions
- public space is only occasionally able to mobilise public political attention
Therefore the concept of public space (along with a notion of private space) should be revised, for example as 'inter-active space' (in opposition to 'intimate space'), as a space where people interact with / influence the socio-political realm. It could be a private room where one has access to the internet and takes part in a political debate, or a factory on strike, or a university."

Powiązane wydarzenia

PRAGA PÓŁNOC | WIEDZA  | niedziela, 11.07.2010 | 18:00

A Really-Possible Public Sphere?

Seminarium oparte jest na dwóch tekstach autorstwa Malcolma Milesa i Krzysztofa Nawratka.