Open AccessSpaces of exposure: Re-thinking ‘publicness’ through public transport
Author(s) -
Laura Kemmer,
Wladimir Sgibnev,
Tonio Weicker,
Maxwell Woods
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
cultural geographies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.564
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1477-0881
pISSN - 1474-4740
DOI - 10.1177/14744740211068097
Subject(s) - complicity , sociology , openness to experience , public space , nexus (standard) , vulnerability (computing) , epistemology , agency (philosophy) , public sphere , foregrounding , dualism , perspective (graphical) , narrative , mobilities , environmental ethics , politics , social science , political science , social psychology , law , psychology , linguistics , architectural engineering , philosophy , computer security , artificial intelligence , computer science , embedded system , engineering
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.