A “Public” Muse

Abstract

The “public” is a central concept in planning, delimiting a realm of praxis as well as often indicating the reconciliation of disparate interests to create a collective basis for action. Recently, communicative action, informed by Habermasian critical theory, has enlivened these ideas. The author draws on ongoing feminist debates to rethink this “public” through two conceptual devices: the social and the global. In planning, the public has always been contested, but a feminist perspective demonstrates how the discursive constitution and legitimation of the public has crucial implications for social entitlements. And if communicative action has shown how the public interest is shaped by the dialogic parameters of the public domain, then feminist contentions point to the geopolitical conditions under which participatory dialogue is possible. The author offers this feminist interrogation of the ideal of the public not with the intent of replacing it but instead with the hope that it will strengthen the everyday idea of the public.