Spaces of exposure: Re-thinking ‘publicness’ through public transport

Abstract

Developing thoughts on exposure in cultural geography, literary studies, and mobilities research, this article aims to provide a more comprehensive account towards the publicness of public space. What would happen if we assessed publicness not by degrees of openness and inclusion, but through the nexus of vulnerability and complicity that is fundamental to the notion of exposure? To grasp such an intrinsic dualism, our perspective goes towards public transport, where experiences of exposure are intensified by its specific conditions of encapsulation and movement. We illustrate this perspective drawing from the autobiographical chronicles of the Chilean writer Pedro Lemebel, in order to then propose a ‘learning from’ the case of public transport for a rethinking of publicness. Specifically, we argue that exposure provides new insights on agency, power and vulnerability as part of a more processual notion of public space.

Exposing the private, engaging in the public. Asylum seekers, intimate publics and normative performances of public participation

“…For years, access to the public space and “visibility” in the public have been considered core elements in processes of democratic inclusion. Yet, in line with a more processual understanding of publicness (Kemmer et al., 2022), we have shown that exposure in public or semi-public spaces does not necessarily guarantee recognition. It can actually reproduce processes of subaltern inclusion and conditional belonging.…”

“…At the same time, ecoming visible or speaking in the public space does not equate to feeling included. In fact, public space is “not a utopia constituted through deliberate intercultural encounter, but it is often characterized by an exposure to others by whom one is subjected or whom one subjects” (Kemmer et al., 2022: 6). Our ethnographic engagement hints at the ways in which refugees may choose to fit such expectations, but also their everyday – more or less conscious – strategies of negotiation and opposition.…”

“…Furthermore, and once again, refugees’ processes of public legitimation emerge as intensely anchored to a politics of exposure , not simply of the body, but also of the intimate self. Following Kemmer et al. (2022), the notion of exposure seeks to draw attention “to the intimacy of communal encounters, or the communality of intimate encounters, that produce a more troubled experience of ‘publicness’” (Kemmer et al., 2022: 286).…”

“…Our overarching concern is with the qualities of the public(s) created through those everyday -more or less formal -institutional encounters and arrangements. By decentring a Eurocentric idea of "the public" as an unambiguous space of inclusion, democracy and freedom (Kemmer et al, 2022;Staeheli et al, 2009), we show how processes of refugee legitimation are intensely anchored to a politics of exposure, not only of the body, but also of the intimate self. However, these strategies of governance do not necessarily succeed in their efforts of mobilising an increasingly diverse "new public" in acts of relational proximity and social cohesion.…”

Bonding oder „Was hält die Stadt zusammen?“

“…In meinem Beitrag möchte ich diesem scheinbaren Widerspruch oder zumindest dem Spannungsverhältnis von intimen Verbindungsweisen (bonding) einerseits und dem Auseinanderbrechen urbaner Kollektive andererseits nachgehen. Im ersten Schritt führe ich vor dem Hintergrund eines gemeinsamen Nachdenkens über urbane "Spaces of exposure" (Kemmer et al 2022) aus, inwieweit die technisch-materiellen, räumlichen Bedingungen öffentlicher (Verkehrs-)Infrastrukturen neue Allianzen und kollektive Formen affektiver Kompliz*innenschaft im städtischen Alltag hervorbringen. In einem zweiten Schritt denke ich dann am Beispiel meiner Forschung in Rio de Janeiro darüber nach, ob und wie bestimmte Formen "materieller Intimität" die Stadt zusammenhalten.…”