Re-Imagining Public Space : The Frankfurt School in the 21st Century

Public space, both literally and figuratively, is foundationally important to political life. From Socratic lectures in the public forum, to Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring, public spaces have long played host to political discussion and protest. The book provides a direct assessment of the role that public space plays in political life. With a foreword by Stephen Bronner, this volume edited by Diana Boros and James Glass consists of reflections from contemporary political and social theorists on the concept of public space and what it means in the context of modern political life. The contributors lay the foundation for thinking about public space, moving beyond historical analyses of Frankfurt School theorists to offer a new perspective on how to think about public space, how to theorize its implications, and how to construct a theory of democratic political life through political action that takes seriously how politics workwithin the public space. The contributors, including Douglas Kellner, David Ingram, Lauren Langman, Lars Rensmann, Michael Thompson, Michael Diamond, C. Fred Alford, Mary Caputi, and Malcolm Miles, come from a variety of scholarly backgrounds but all are in agreement that a democratic politics will not be viable in protecting rights, tolerance, and freedom unless it is grounded in a theory that embraces participation in public life, as well as art and protest as democratic action in the public space Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-18 Habermas, the Public Sphere, and Democracy....Pages 19-43 Reflections on the Meaning and Experience of Public Space: A Critical Psychoanalytic Perspective....Pages 45-63 The Public Sphere as Site of Emancipation and Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique of Digital Communication....Pages 65-85 Walter Benjamin and the Modern Parisian Cityscape....Pages 87-105 Critical Spaces: Public Spaces, the Culture Industry, Critical Theory, and Urbanism....Pages 107-124 Idealizing Public Space: Arendt, Wolin, and the Frankfurt School....Pages 125-139 Spatial Form and the Pathologies of Public Reason: Toward a Critical Theory of Space....Pages 141-161 Adorno and the Global Public Sphere: Rethinking Globalization and the Cosmopolitan Condition of Politics....Pages 163-190 The Carnivalization of the Public Sphere....Pages 191-214 #Occupytheestablishment The Commodification of a “New Sensibility” for Public Space and Public Life....Pages 215-239 Back Matter....Pages 241-250 Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of Figures; Introduction; Chapter 1 Habermas, the Public Sphere, and Democracy; Chapter 2 Reflections on the Meaning and Experience of Public Space: A Critical Psychoanalytic Perspective; Chapter 3 The Public Sphere as Site of Emancipation and Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique of Digital Communicati; Chapter 4 Walter Benjamin and the Modern Parisian Cityscape; Chapter 5 Critical Spaces: Public Spaces, the Culture Industry, Critical Theory, and Urbanism; Chapter 6 Idealizing Public Space: Arendt, Wolin, and the Frankfurt School