This working group meeting will discuss what the “public” in phrases like (digital) public sphere, (virtual) public space, (online) public discourse, and (networked) public good, is or might be. As issues of access and equity increasingly expand into new and diverse frames of communication technologies, how and where do classical formulations of “the citizen,” “the public,” and “the nation-state” still offer helpful sight lines for imagining? How and where do they reach their limits? And what can we envision beyond them?

Co-facilitators:

Shannon Jackson, UC Berkeley Associate Vice Chancellor of Arts + Design; Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

Michael Wolfe, UC Davis Director of Scholarly Communications Program

Readings available here: https://collabscoopscoalitions.wordpress.com/2018/02/07/readings-for-meeting-five-public-spheres/

This meeting is part of the Critical Theory Working Group Collaborations, Co-operatives, Coalition-Building, co-sponsored by the Arts Research Center, the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, the Berkeley Center for New Media, and the Maxine Elliot Chair of Comparative Literature.