Public Sphere

The public sphere is a messy, untamable, semi-autonomous space of dialogue and dissent that, like theory, can bring into question seemingly imperturbable, permanent, and dominant ideas. A bulwark of democracy, it is fundamentally participatory. In our current stage of neoliberal capitalism, the public sphere is under threat, with cuts to social welfare, public parks, public schools, public broadcasting, public workforce, and public associations of all sorts, as well as crack-downs on public protests. Whereas women have been historically excluded from the public sphere, feminist theory has a stake in revitalizing it as a space where action, speech, and storytelling can recognize everyone&s;s unique contributions. The public sphere is an important concept for feminist theory because it compels us to consider the way meanings are made through the interactions of people as they encounter the world they share and the space between them. The public sphere stands between the individual, the state, and the market as an indeterminate, possibly ideal space of dialogue and deliberation, offering the possibility and the promise that people coming together to act in their combined interest can resist and refuse the impositions of power. Feminist theory has provided multiple ideas of a public sphere not built on exclusions, including counterpublics, strikes, and gender itself. This chapter takes up some of these ideas in the writings of Wendy Brown, Nancy Fraser, Hannah Arendt, Chantal Mouffe, Judith Butler, and Verónica Gago.