Commons Conference: April 29, 2006
Mark Willson
Revised -- June 1st
In The Human Condition (1958), Hannah Arendt conceives of the public realm as a space produced by particular forms of citizen interaction. Where citizens are willing to engage in the risk and unpredictability of mutual self-disclosure, she suggests, they benefit from the self-discovery that comes through interaction with previously unknown others, and solidify the bonds between citizens that produce and sustain a space for this public form of interaction. I start with Arendt here for two reasons: 1) she offers a highly substantive account of what public space is, an account which provides some insights into substantially differing understandings of public space from those seen in some contemporary political theory, and 2) her account of public space as constituted by highly participatory and unpredictable acts offers a way of seeing important forms of democratic citizenship practices in city activities that are normally regarded as relatively insignificant forms of political action. These closely related questions, of how we conceive of public space and of how we conceive of its production through the relationships between citizens and their surroundings, are useful to look into, as they impact what types of public spaces are recognized and envisioned, and how they are strived for and produced.
