Etika ver?ejny?ch prostranstvi?: mezi z?ity?m a materia?lni?m prostorem

Mgr. Aneta Kohoutová

Doctoral thesis

The Ethics Of Public Spaces: In Between the Lived and Built Environment

Abstract:

The thesis The Ethics of Public Spaces: In Between the Built and Lived Environment introduces different philosophical approaches, which elaborate upon the mutual conditionality between the lived and the built environment. In addition, it contrasts those attitudes not only with each other but also with real cases of active citizenship, interventions, and art in public spaces. In the first chapter, the thesis poses a question of how public are public spaces and what the notion of the public means in terms of built and lived environments, aligned with the thoughts of Hannah Arendt. This part argues for the public as an active agency based on one's perception of the common world. The second chapter stays with Hannah Arendt's ideas to dig deeper into our public appearance as an essence for revealing our who-ness to others. The author discusses there our mutual conditionality, invisibility, and body presence, as introduced by Judith Butler, in relation to public appearance and puts it in contrast with Arendt's thoughts. To get a complete picture of the tension that appears within public spaces, the following chapters discuss the concept of power using the thoughts of Michael Foucault and his opponent, Michael de Certeau. Foucault shows how power turns inhabitants into subjects, and de Certeau's perspective outlines how people resist it. The core of this chapter is about the practices of everyday life that are tied to the built environment (such as walking) in order to understand the political level of our everyday lives. In the last chapter, the author deliberately shifts her focus from everyday life towards more visible events, such as the recent tearing down of statues worldwide. The main task is to introduce the built environment as a carrier of certain values, which can enhance the sense of belonging on the one hand; on the other, it can be read as a form of an explicit exclusion from participation in public life, which prevents one from dwelling with others.

Abstract:

Dizertac?ni? pra?ce s na?zvem Etika ver?ejny?ch prostranstvi?: mezi z?ity?m a materia?lni?m prostorem, pr?edstavuje filozoficke? pr?i?stupy, ktere? reflektuji? podmi?ne?nost mezi prostr?edi?m z?ity?m (nehmotny?m) a vybudovany?m (materia?lni?m). Pra?ce nestavi? do kontrastu pouze vybrane? filozoficke? teze, ale i teorie s praxi?. Na konkre?tni?ch pr?i?kladech rozkry?va? jednotlive? vrstvy ver?ejne?ho prostoru a objasn?uje, co znamena? slovo ver?ejny? ve vztahu k prostorovy?m dispozici?cm. Dizertace stavi? na mys?lenka?ch Hannah Arendt, ktere? da?l rozvi?ji? teoriemi dals?i?ch myslitelu? jakou jsou Judith Butler, Michel de Certeau, Michel Foucault a Richard Sennett. Hlavni?mi vy?zkumne? ota?zky jsou formulova?ny na?sledovne?: Jak ver?ejny? je ver?ejny? prostor? Jakou roli hraji? ver?ejna? prostranstvi? v nas?ich z?ivotech? A jak ovlivn?uji? zpu?sob nas?eho vni?ma?ni? sve?ta? Ani jeden z autoru? zmi?ne?ny?ch vy?s?e se ve sve? pra?ce neve?nuje vy?hradne? ver?ejne?mu prostoru. Ve sve?m vy?zkumu se doty?kaji? pouze urc?ity?ch aspektu?, ktere? tato pracuje abstrahuje, vrstvi? a spojuje do ucelene? teorie, jeji?z? ci?lem je zdu?raznit du?lez?itost ver?ejne?ho prostoru v nas?em z?ivote?, protoz?e pr?icha?zi? s tvrzeni?m, z?e ztra?ci?me nejen prostor samotny?, ale i jeho vy?znam.

Keywords

veřejný prostor, pluralita, moc, občanský aktivismus, veřejná sféra, prostor jednání

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 28. 6. 2024

Accessible from:: 31. 12. 2999

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Siobhan Kattago

University of Pardubice

Faculty of Arts and Philosophy

Doctoral programme / field:
Philosophy / Philosophy