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Public Space in the Digital Era

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Wiring the Streets, Surfing the Square

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Abstract

This book investigates the ways in which the production of public space in contemporary urban contexts is affected by the suffusion of urban life with digital technologies. A “social production of technology” approach is taken to frame the digitally-mediated city as a communal social and cultural project. Drawing on concepts from Arendt and Habermas, and acknowledging the multivalent and shifting nature of public space and the heterogeneity of the urban actors who form it, the “agency” of these different actors in appropriating digital technologies takes center stage. The chapter concludes with an outline of the content and exposition of the book.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is what might be considered a “democratic bias” in most scholarly work on public space, in which public space is seen as an essential lynchpin for the sustaining of democratic societies.

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Jachna, T. (2021). Public Space in the Digital Era. In: Wiring the Streets, Surfing the Square. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66672-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66672-9_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-66671-2

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