Naslov
The materialization of discourse on body in geographies of the city: Closing off the body’s publicness discourse

Autori
Klepač, Olgica

Izvornik
Privatnastvar-javni prostor

Vrsta, podvrsta
Ostale vrste radova, popularni rad

Godina
2013

Ključne riječi
materialization; discourse on body; publicness; gographies of the city;

Sažetak
The following text sets out to discuss some of the relations between the public/private and the body. In its course, the body as a crucial element in creation of public(ness) is emphasized, specifically for the important role it plays in conflicts that are a necessary product of the public/private dichotomy materialization. The dynamic that is contained within this abstract divide, exemplified with Habermas’ construct of public sphere, creates social spaces articulated as private or public. Their complex intertwinings somehow always includes the body and, more importantly, have effects on bodies. In the heart of that process are the body’s materiality (and for that matter its visibility) as a prime feature of publicness, and its ability to speak by occupying, or appropriating space (Lefebvre) as prime means in public expression of justice/struggle for justice. In that way the body presents the focal point for any change in society to occur in its contradictory role as a danger to the established order (maintained by constant recreation of ordered private and public) and a necessary means of its reproduction (by putting it in a certain place). For purposes of explaining this complex process, this text will first critically examine Habermas’ abstract concept of public sphere by concentrating on the implications of its practical realization (or practices of its materialization). These implications are related to public space/social justice relationship, or more specifically, to endangered social justice in contemporary societies on the most basic level: creation of disabled/disabling cities (Gleeson) is diminishing possibilities of publicness that could be realized only as a characteristic of body/places (Nast/Pile). Directed by that problem, the second part of the text examines the difficulties of the emancipatory process of persons with disabilities.[i] In arguing that criterion for public justice should be based on the needs of the most marginalized citizens (Mitchell), and by comprehending people with disabilities as a group whose lives are featured within a spectrum of discriminatory practices, the final part of the text presents, instead of a conclusion, certain lessons of the disability movement leading to an idea about basing the struggles for social justice in a contemporary city on the needs of this category of citizens for they could be universalized by acknowledging that body differences are what we all have in common (Davis). In this way, the fight against the discriminatory (ableist) practices of capitalist society that are materialized in geographies of cities present a fight for the right to the city that is the underlying condition of publicness and a crucial element for the materialization of order that is a base for an expanded notion of justice – one that confronts the notion of normality.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Sociologija

Napomena
Paper is an output of the workshop Private matter - public space held in Split (Croatia) 3. – 5. 9. 2012.

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