The Public Sphere: The stage where we become human

Source: The political stage: Hannah Arendt on the shared space

"The public realm, as the common world, gathers us together and yet prevents our falling over each other... to live a political life means to live in a world of speech and action."

(Hannah Arendt, "The Human Condition", 1958)

Explanation: From the private to the public sphere: Where we become political

For Arendt, the public realm is where a person becomes a political creature. Unlike the private sphere (the home), which revolves around survival, the public realm is where we appear as distinct human beings through shared speech and action. It is the public political space that makes individualism possible, in relation to the other.

Perspective: The erosion of public space: What are we losing?

This perspective highlights the public sphere as the antidote to alienation. In a social-democratic society, public space is the bedrock of civic belonging. When public space is privatized—for instance, when residential towers replace public parks, or when we work from home at a computer rather than in a shared workplace—we lose the "stage" where citizens can act together as equal partners.

Going Deeper: The fall of public man: From a public role to an obsession with authenticity

Echoing Arendt's "stage," the sociologist Richard Sennett, in his book The Fall of Public Man (1977), argues that in the modern era we have lost the ability to play our "public role." Sennett contends that the public sphere once allowed strangers to meet and act together without exposing their entire intimate lives, whereas today we are obsessed with "authenticity" and intimacy—leading us to retreat from the public realm back into ourselves, eroding civic life. Since the book's publication, the world has transformed completely, and domestic intimacy has been breached by social media, as we will see later on.

Culture: Between the piazza and the avenue: The public sphere on screen

The film Paris, Texas depicts the American public sphere as a place of endless loneliness. By contrast, in the films of Federico Fellini, the Italian piazza represents the public sphere at its finest: a space where classes meet and mingle. Wim Wenders's America in Paris, Texas is portrayed as a barren desert of solitary figures. Even on New York's Fifth Avenue, millions of people walk past each other every day, utterly alone. Fellini, on the other hand, depicts in his film Roma a bustling, diverse city where no matter how destitute or miserable people are, someone is always standing beside them. Israeli cinema and television also frequently explore the public domain, from Kazablan and bourekas films (melodramatic, populist Israeli comedies) to The Policeman Azulai, and through to Shtisel, Matchmaking, and Saving Shuli.