THE PHYSICAL SPACE OF THE PUBLIC OPINION: NOTES ON JOURNALISM AND ARCHITECTURE<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v3i2.14954"><i> <b>[doi: 10.7443/problemata.v3i2.14954]</b></i></a>

Abstract

In 2012 we are expected to remember and celebrate the fifty years anniversary of the book Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. In the following paper we aim to join some arguments in order to explain the reasons of the academic and editorial success of this text, published in Germany, in 1962, and we thereby want to assume that “public sphere” is the central theme and Leitmotiv of the entire intellectual work of its author, Jürgen Habermas. We will then make some considerations about the history of journalism and public opinion in Brazil in nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and beside this we are going to examine how the concept of “public sphere” (or public space) has been accepted in different theory fields such as mass communication studies and architecture. Finally, based on some experiences and reflections on urban interventions, we would like to propose a return to the “physical space” of public sphere and, by doing that, we also bring back some original critical ideas from Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge, concerning their research on “Öffentlichkeit” as a general concept that should also include the proletarian public sphere.