33. On Public Sphere སྤྱི་དམངས་ཀྱི་སྡིངས་ཆ།

What is public sphere? A dominant liberal answer: a sphere where private individuals, members of a political community, on equal footing engage in reasoned deliberation on matters of public concern to form public opinions on what is public good(s). Such a sphere is fundamental to democracy—a sphere that mediates a relationship between society and state and holds later accountable to the former. 

What are the problems with this dominant liberal conception of public sphere? Fundamental to democracy is public deliberation but on what and whose terms and conditions are these deliberation taking place? In an actually existing society with unequal distribution of power, who gets heard? Who represents the public? How do subordinate groups reorganize and deliberate their public concerns? We read Jurgen Habermas’s classic work on the public sphere alongside Nancy Fraser’s critical rethinking to discuss these questions and more. 

Intro/Outro theme: Karachal - Alash Ensemble (freemusicarchive.org/music/Alash_Ensemble/)

Image description: Gopal Guru, Dalit social and political theorist, speaking on nationalism in Jawaharlal Nehru University outside the VC's office. Amidst the widespread crackdown on student political activism under the new BJP government in India and the national media proclaiming students in the university as anti-national, the students and professors of the university reorganize themselves outside the University's VC office to debate what is a nation? How should we understand nationalism? In the process, they proclaimed the space as Freedom Square--a site Nancy Fraser might call subaltern public sphere, a site resistance and counter-discourse.

Image Credit: still image from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joTTDAOyPLY&feature=emb_title