Wikipedia entry

In "Publics and Counterpublics " (2002), Michael Warner says…

We need to talk about how a public is formed     

With: Texts and their circulation

Toward: Discourses

Based on: Queer Theory/Post-structuralim (?)

Publics are formed by self-organizing discourses mediated by cultural forms

-Texts

"A pubic is a space of discourse organized by nothing other than discourse itself" (p. 413).

Warner arugues that the production and circulation of "texts" is what constitutes a public.

A public sphere exists when texts are picked up--both activity readers and unrelated strangers

--and demands readers' "attention." As texts can reach whomever within their limits of circulation

at different times, they are 'worldly."

-Strangers

When a public (or the discourse texts generate) is addressed, it is "strangers" who make

this social space public--not a community or social group. Hence, a public sphere is always

a "social imaginary." In this sense, Warner is a defender of Habermas' public which

Fraser criticises as "ideal"--meaning, it only exists on our willingness to keep imagining (p. 417).

-Poetic world making    

Questions/Critiques

-Is addressing to a social imaginary (p.422) enough for change? Where is hope? Latour.pdf

-His articulation of artifacts/technology is too narrow/discriminatory