19/02: Public and Private Spheres
vrijdag 12 februari 2016 08:56
Introductie
• Vorige week:
○ Film van vorige week: way of economy to produce a vast quality of consumers, took what we
previously need and turned them in desires
○ How is it that media produce shape and constitute time and space?
• Vandaag: social time and space
○ Public and private (twee categorieën)
Is in architectuur, division between private homes and public spaces like universities, in laws,
in conventions, and so on
It's out there but it's also in here: in our beliefs, habits
• Distinction between public and private is in itself public and private
○ "We're creatures that condition the conditions that we are conditioned by" - Peeters
• Nazi's gave propaganda a bad name: we need to call it something else. Public relations. There had to be
something to call a public. In order for that concept of public to have an effect there has to be something
to call private
• Division of social time and space in public and private is about the link between media and politics
• How is it that social time and space come to be divided in two categories and how is it that the interplay
between the two categories is democracy? = vraag van vandaag
○ What is the disctinction? Where did it come from? What are the consequences for democratic
politics?
○ How social time and space is mediated
• Inhoud college
○ Part 1: as conceptual categories
○ Part 2: as the terrain of democratic politics
○ Part 3: in the politics of new(er) media
○ Part 4: and (artistic) experiments in collective and individual identity
Part 1: Public and Private as Conceptual Categories
• Camera obscura fotoreeks waar huiselijke sfeer is gefotografeerd waar de buitenwereld in is
geprojecteerd
○ Public and private always interpernate each other even when they could be distinct
• Public and private are disctinct
○ Je kan dit zien, bijv. in architectuur: woonkamer waar anderen welkom zijn apart van slaapkamer
• We weten het verschil tussen de twee. Hoe te kleden, te spreken
• Distinctions learn when we are very young, net zo makkelijk als op-neer
○ Basic way of orienting ourselves
• Hard to get a hold of in all its complexity
• Ook conceptual distinction: codified in law for example
• Like the spacial distinction the logical opposition between public and private makes it seem clearer
○ The concepts seem to be based on mutual exclusion
What is public isn't private
○ The categories are deeply dependent on context on history and something can be public in one
sense and private in another sense
• Latin etymologie of the terms:
○ Public: publicus combines poplicus (of the people) and pubes (adult)
To reasonable citizens
○ Private: privatus (deprived; set apart; freed)
Public Private
Open to everyone Restricted to some
State-related (public sector) Nonstate (private sector)
Political Nonpolitical
MTR Pagina 1
, Political Nonpolitical
Outside the home Domestic
•
Open to view Concealed
Circulated in print Circulated orally
Known widely Known to initiates
Collective Individual
Universal particular
○ Private always has potential to become public: emails zijn privé, maar wel printed
• Simply a way of thinking about the first distinctions and dan hoe het over kan stappen, overlappen
2. The Politics of Public/Private Spheres
• "Only in the space opened up by the ongoing choreography of these categories can politics exist - at least
any politics that deserves to be called democratic" - Jean Bethke Elshtain
○ She's not saying that democracy depends on being public; democracy depends on that there is both
a private, a public and an interplay
○ It doesn't happen only in public or private space but somewhere in between
• Jürgen Habermas: Strukturwandel der Offentlichkeit
○ Samenvatting van eerdere boek ut 1962
○ Vertaald in Engels in 1989
○ Notion of public sphere seems to have relations with other notions in that time. Fall of Berlin wall;
liberal democracy seems to have triumphed over communism. Daarom is dit werk van Habermas
weer in trek want democratie is in trek
○ Originele titel voor publieke sfeer heeft geen spatial dimension to it. Kan het best vertaald worden
met openheid/openbaar. Het krijgt pas een ruimtelijke dimensie bij een vertaling in het Engels.
Nederlandse openbaar ligt dichter bij het Duitse woord dan het Engelse want geen spatial
connotation.
• What is the Public Sphere? (p. 55)
○ "By 'public sphere' we mean first of all …………. And publicize their opinions freely."
○ A domain of social life where public opinion can be formed
Bepaalde eisen: open voor iedereen om mee te doen aan de discussie
Also distributive.
Private persons come together to form a public
□ They're not government official, not police, no part of institutions. They are there in
that space as private citizens. Who are nevertheless talking about a general problem.
Free in a sense of no authority that is surveilling them or following them. But also in a sense
that they're not there as representatives. Also in a sense that they have free time.
• From "representative publicness" (koning spreekt namens de mensen) to "public power":
○ The centralized power of church and aristocracy waned
○ Public power became institutionalized and autonomous from church and nobility
○ Emergence of property-owning bourgeois civil society
○ "Representative publicness gave way to the new sphere of 'public power' that came into being with
the national and territorial states. Ongoing state activity (permanent administration, a standing
army) had its counterpart in the permanence of relationships that had developed in the meantime
with the stock markets and the press, through traffic in goods and news" (Habermas, 57)
About circulation
There is a way in which the discussion about public matters become something that is
distributed over large territories
○ "The bourgeous public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people come
together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public
authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in
the basically privateized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor. The
medium of this political confrontation was peculiar and without historical precedent: People's
public use of their reason" (27)
Not judged by status/backgroud but by how good your argument is
Medium of language. Speech, argument, print, face to face
MTR Pagina 2
vrijdag 12 februari 2016 08:56
Introductie
• Vorige week:
○ Film van vorige week: way of economy to produce a vast quality of consumers, took what we
previously need and turned them in desires
○ How is it that media produce shape and constitute time and space?
• Vandaag: social time and space
○ Public and private (twee categorieën)
Is in architectuur, division between private homes and public spaces like universities, in laws,
in conventions, and so on
It's out there but it's also in here: in our beliefs, habits
• Distinction between public and private is in itself public and private
○ "We're creatures that condition the conditions that we are conditioned by" - Peeters
• Nazi's gave propaganda a bad name: we need to call it something else. Public relations. There had to be
something to call a public. In order for that concept of public to have an effect there has to be something
to call private
• Division of social time and space in public and private is about the link between media and politics
• How is it that social time and space come to be divided in two categories and how is it that the interplay
between the two categories is democracy? = vraag van vandaag
○ What is the disctinction? Where did it come from? What are the consequences for democratic
politics?
○ How social time and space is mediated
• Inhoud college
○ Part 1: as conceptual categories
○ Part 2: as the terrain of democratic politics
○ Part 3: in the politics of new(er) media
○ Part 4: and (artistic) experiments in collective and individual identity
Part 1: Public and Private as Conceptual Categories
• Camera obscura fotoreeks waar huiselijke sfeer is gefotografeerd waar de buitenwereld in is
geprojecteerd
○ Public and private always interpernate each other even when they could be distinct
• Public and private are disctinct
○ Je kan dit zien, bijv. in architectuur: woonkamer waar anderen welkom zijn apart van slaapkamer
• We weten het verschil tussen de twee. Hoe te kleden, te spreken
• Distinctions learn when we are very young, net zo makkelijk als op-neer
○ Basic way of orienting ourselves
• Hard to get a hold of in all its complexity
• Ook conceptual distinction: codified in law for example
• Like the spacial distinction the logical opposition between public and private makes it seem clearer
○ The concepts seem to be based on mutual exclusion
What is public isn't private
○ The categories are deeply dependent on context on history and something can be public in one
sense and private in another sense
• Latin etymologie of the terms:
○ Public: publicus combines poplicus (of the people) and pubes (adult)
To reasonable citizens
○ Private: privatus (deprived; set apart; freed)
Public Private
Open to everyone Restricted to some
State-related (public sector) Nonstate (private sector)
Political Nonpolitical
MTR Pagina 1
, Political Nonpolitical
Outside the home Domestic
•
Open to view Concealed
Circulated in print Circulated orally
Known widely Known to initiates
Collective Individual
Universal particular
○ Private always has potential to become public: emails zijn privé, maar wel printed
• Simply a way of thinking about the first distinctions and dan hoe het over kan stappen, overlappen
2. The Politics of Public/Private Spheres
• "Only in the space opened up by the ongoing choreography of these categories can politics exist - at least
any politics that deserves to be called democratic" - Jean Bethke Elshtain
○ She's not saying that democracy depends on being public; democracy depends on that there is both
a private, a public and an interplay
○ It doesn't happen only in public or private space but somewhere in between
• Jürgen Habermas: Strukturwandel der Offentlichkeit
○ Samenvatting van eerdere boek ut 1962
○ Vertaald in Engels in 1989
○ Notion of public sphere seems to have relations with other notions in that time. Fall of Berlin wall;
liberal democracy seems to have triumphed over communism. Daarom is dit werk van Habermas
weer in trek want democratie is in trek
○ Originele titel voor publieke sfeer heeft geen spatial dimension to it. Kan het best vertaald worden
met openheid/openbaar. Het krijgt pas een ruimtelijke dimensie bij een vertaling in het Engels.
Nederlandse openbaar ligt dichter bij het Duitse woord dan het Engelse want geen spatial
connotation.
• What is the Public Sphere? (p. 55)
○ "By 'public sphere' we mean first of all …………. And publicize their opinions freely."
○ A domain of social life where public opinion can be formed
Bepaalde eisen: open voor iedereen om mee te doen aan de discussie
Also distributive.
Private persons come together to form a public
□ They're not government official, not police, no part of institutions. They are there in
that space as private citizens. Who are nevertheless talking about a general problem.
Free in a sense of no authority that is surveilling them or following them. But also in a sense
that they're not there as representatives. Also in a sense that they have free time.
• From "representative publicness" (koning spreekt namens de mensen) to "public power":
○ The centralized power of church and aristocracy waned
○ Public power became institutionalized and autonomous from church and nobility
○ Emergence of property-owning bourgeois civil society
○ "Representative publicness gave way to the new sphere of 'public power' that came into being with
the national and territorial states. Ongoing state activity (permanent administration, a standing
army) had its counterpart in the permanence of relationships that had developed in the meantime
with the stock markets and the press, through traffic in goods and news" (Habermas, 57)
About circulation
There is a way in which the discussion about public matters become something that is
distributed over large territories
○ "The bourgeous public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people come
together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public
authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in
the basically privateized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor. The
medium of this political confrontation was peculiar and without historical precedent: People's
public use of their reason" (27)
Not judged by status/backgroud but by how good your argument is
Medium of language. Speech, argument, print, face to face
MTR Pagina 2
