Spaces, Places, and Geographies of Public Spheres: Exploring Dimensions of the Spatial Turn

Abstract

For decades, scholars have been calling out a spatial turn in media and communication studies. Yet, in public sphere research, spatial concepts such as space and place have mainly been used metaphorically. In recent years, the abundance of digital trace data offers new opportunities to locate communicative interactions, sparking new interest in the spatial turn in media and communication and opening up new perspectives on spaces and places also within public sphere research. Digital location data enables one to: study the places and spaces in which (semi-)public communication is embedded; uncover geographical inequalities between countries, regions, cities, and peripheries; and highlight the local contexts of public spheres. This thematic issue gathers some of these endeavors in one place, bringing together conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions that spell out the spatiality of public spheres in detail and combine the analysis of spaces, places, and geographies with long-standing concepts of public sphere research.

Doing Research at Online and Offline Intersections: Bringing Together Digital and Mobile Methodologies

“…Given the spread of smartphones and the ongoing advancement of mobile media technologies that connect online and offline environments on the go (Campbell, 2019), the empirical complexity is further increasing steadily-and it only adds to the methodological challenges that researchers face. Consequently, it has also become impossible to maintain "a clear distinction between place (in a purely geographical sense) and mediated experience" (Morley, 2017, p. 113; see also Waldherr et al, 2021). With the rise of mobile media and augmented reality (Liao, 2019), self-tracking devices, the Internet of Things, and other mobile technologies to come (Frith, 2022), online and offline spheres are only becoming further intertwined and in multilayered ways.…”