ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we consider the various definitions of the public, and we offer a new reading which includes migrating and ephemeral publics. This work is positioned from a critical reading of theorisations of the public. The historical inceptions of being public are premised on an understanding of a subject that is abstract, rational and universal (Kant 2000, Locke as quoted in Tuckness 2020). Subsequent critiques of the term public have sought to problematise an implicit concept of the neutral ‘citizen’ (Pateman 1988; O’Malley 2020). These feminist political theorists have noted the presumption of the public subject as male and subsequent counterpublic theorists have further illuminated this universal subject as not only male but white, middle class and heterosexual. Primarily we draw on the ideas of Hannah Arendt from her book The Human Condition (1958). In this chapter, we initially outline Arendt's conceptualisation of the public and the appearance of the who a person is. We briefly look at Jurgen Habermas’ (1974) concept of the public sphere and a counter argument to this concept through the work of Michael Warner (2002). We give attention to a range of publics and our new theorisation of migrating and ephemeral publics.
