THE PHYSICAL SPACE OF THE PUBLIC OPINION: NOTES ON JOURNALISM AND ARCHITECTURE

In 2012 we are expected to remember and celebrate the fifty years anniversary of the book Strukturwandel der ffentlichkeit. In the following paper we aim to join some arguments in order to explain the reasons of the academic and editorial success of this text, published in Germany, in 1962, and we thereby want to assume that “public sphere” is the central theme and Leitmotiv of the entire intellectual work of its author, Jürgen Habermas. We will then make some considerations about the history of journalism and public opinion in Brazil in nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and beside this we are going to examine how the concept of “public sphere” (or public space) has been accepted in different theory fields such as mass communication studies and architecture. Finally, based on some experiences and reflections on urban interventions, we would like to propose a return to the “physical space” of public sphere and, by doing that, we also bring back some original critical ideas from Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge, concerning their research on “ ffentlichkeit” as a general concept that should also include the proletarian public sphere. Ao comemorarmos os cinqüenta anos de publica o de Mudan a estrutural da esfera pública (1962), reunimos neste artigo alguns argumentos que podem ajudar a explicar seu sucesso editorial, bem como o papel de fio condutor que a categoria “esfera pública” viria a ter para a obra posterior de seu autor, Jürgen Habermas. Em seguida, s o feitas considera es sobre a história do jornalismo na sociedade brasileira dos séculos XIX e XX, além de dedicarmos uma se o para acompanhar a apropria o do conceito “esfera pública” (ou espa o público) nos campos da comunica o e da arquitetura. Por fim, em torno de experiências de interven es urbanas anticapitalistas e com base na obra dos teóricos críticos Oskar Negt e Alexander Kluge, proporemos um retorno ao componente físico, a vida no ambiente urbano, com conseqüências para a participa o política e a forma de governo.