Revisiting the (Urban) Public Sphere: A Model of Analysis
Abstract
This article invites to revisit and update the notion of public sphere in three ways: first, recovering the idea of communicative space as an environment (medium) of social (inter)action; second, integrating the devices and the debates in one single complex field of political and socially relevant activity; and third, trying to understand and critically identify the challenges and changes in the mechanisms of legitimacy and in the actions of power. To do this, the article describes a model under development that allows to identify the factors that shape the urban communicative space from the analysis of four modes: representations of place (diversity of discourses); the structures of space (barriers and circulation); the textures of place (location and the communicative capital of the place); and connectivity (as the impact factor of the communicative space). The article suggests methodological strategies and examples of cases used for the development of each one of the complementing modes of analysis, which ultimately helps explaining the conditions for participating in the public debates.
