Ars: časopis Ústavu Dejín Umenia Slovenskej Akadémie Vied (43.2010)

sphere(s) is to not delimit the possibility of any agent
to activate theit own sphere, to not speak for them
nor assume they occupy a prescribed passive recipi-
ency, unaware of the spectacle that surrounds them.
The coercion of the public is then relative to the
public(s) understanding of the polemics of power
and its place within the urban sphere (s), ultimately
residing in the public's dichotomous relationship to
its opposite, the private.
The A^%yA;7?AA/2 o/ A^ ipArT,
to use jürgen Habermash phrase, amounts to the
entrenching of economic and political measures that
allow for a bourgeois public sphere, as evidenced by
the early men of letters of the 18^ Century to the wel-
fare social state embodied by consumer mass-media,
to existť For Habermas, the modem understanding
of the public sphere requires the necessity of a
sphere of public authorityf" The new colonialism
of a policed and commercialized economy control-
led by monopolistic Companies leads to a new kind
of public sphere, deeply ingrained in concepts of
power and economy, resultingin the idea of civilized
society coming into existence 'Ar Ař roro/Ary o/ ^
rAA ^AoA/y'T' The public sphere is
one where private people corne together as a unihed
public whole. The role of the state in maintaining
a private/public dichotomy is through the use and
control of force. Habermas recognizes the public
sphere as one where a dass of leisure-based agents
cornes together to discuss matters of public good,
dehned by a set of standards inherent to their indi-
vidual private interests. Consequentially, in its later
stages of development, of which Montréal can be
représentative, the public sphere then becomes a

HABERMAS, J.: TA gf TW
MAn?. Cambridge (Mass.) 1989.
Ibidem, p. 18.
" Ibidem, p. 19.
Ibidem, p. 187.
' ' HOFFMAN, B.: Law for Art's Sake in the Public Realm. In:
AH íz%4 7A TW SftMv Ed. W J. T. MITCHEEE. Chicago
1992, pp. 113-146, particulatly p. 114.
'' Ibidem.

cipher of private interests. Habermas comments:
"TA yLAA/y^f Ay /A A
The public sphere's transformation is drawn
from Hannah Arendťs concept of the public realm,
where active citizenship is dehned as a political
right V Barbara Hoffman argues that Arendťs realm
dénotés A %77A /w^An* A A<?A
r^/y/WAy mA<?r ^7 ^vp^GAA^/',^ where
goals and outcomes of discussion are modihed to
suit the greater mass or whole. In addition, Dana R.
Villa comments: pro AA ^ ?'AA
o/ Ai'AA A Aiop
wVry, roirA/?, A^/
The theoretical
problém encountered in Arendťs and Habermas's
project is succinctly summarized byjames S. McLean,
who comments through a reading of the criticism
of Nancy Fraser and Seyla Benhabib, that the theory
does not acknowledge the
AH ^A^pAr MpAà'/p/ Likewise,
Raia Prokhovnik comments: "T A Ai M?ry A%A%ry A
AAA A /iTzvf p^/kPr ^^7 pw^A ^
A FiA/?i o^itiA A A, A A ^
A'ir^rrAy AA iv^iAAy Ai, rt?Air At?^ A twwüAw A Á
At?7 %üA A A <?^ifiO/^i/^ Prokhovnik argues that it
is the gender attributes inherent to the concepts of
private and public that limit the diversity of citizen-
ship practices. I would like to add that the diversity
of citizenship practices must also move beyond the
gender binary to be inclusive of androgynous and
trans-gendered individuals. Without an accurate and
open-ended systém, prescriptions become the norm,
as do generalizations. The purpose of developing
VILLA, D. R.: Postmodernism and the Public Sphere. In:
TAH/wmaw PA'AA RwHy, 86, September 1992, No.
3, pp. 712-721, particularly p. 712.
^ McLEAN, j. S.: The Public Part of Public Art: Technology
and the Art of the Public. In: TWAH A CAMkb.'H IWff.
Eds. A. GÉRIN -J. S. McLEAN. Toronto 2008, pp. 450-472,
particularly pp. 453-454.
* PROKHOVNIK, R.: Public and Private Citizenship: From
Gender Invisibility to Feminist Inclusiveness. In: TAmAE
RíwA*, 60, Autumn 1998, pp. 84-104, particularly p. 87.

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