Rethinking the public

Nick Mahony, Centre for Citizenship, Identity and Governance, The Open University, Janet Newman, Department of Social Policy, The Open University and Clive Barnett, Geography, The Open University

This book rethinks the public, public communication and public action in a globalising world. It looks at how publics are brought into being and how to develop research agendas into their formation, offering a rich set of methodological resources and stressing the need to examine the boundaries between theory, research and politics.

Introduction: Rethinking the public ~ Nick Mahony, Janet Newman and Clive Barnett; Mediating the publics of public participation experiments ~ Nick Mahony; Going public? Articulations of the personal and political on Mumsnet.com ~ Richenda Gambles; Digitising and visualising: old media, new media and the pursuit of emerging urban publics ~ Scott Rodgers; Mediating publics in colonial Delhi ~ Gurpreet Bhasin; Public and private on the housing estate: small community groups, activism and local officials ~ Eleanor Jupp; Whose education? Disentangling publics, persons and citizens ~ Jessica Pykett; Fishing for the public interest: making and representing publics in North Sea fisheries governance reforms ~ Liza Griffin; De-naming the beast: the global call to action against poverty and its multiple forms of publicness ~ Clive Gabay; Paradoxical publicness: becoming-imperceptible with the Brazilian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement ~ J. Simon Hutta; Conclusion: emergent publics ~ Nick Mahony, Janet Newman and Clive Barnett.