Towards a Nomadic Geography: Rethinking Space and Identity for the Potentials of Progressive Politics in the Contemporary City

Kenny Cupers

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2005, vol. 29, issue 4, 729-739

Abstract: This article investigates the concept of the public sphere as a specific way of reading the city. In the light of current ambiguities of the urban condition, it poses the question of whether the concept does still, in fact, generate a solid geography for understanding the urban landscape. It explores the history and concept of the liberal public sphere, uncovers its rigid regime of identity formation in space, and problematizes its performative dimension by illustrating how this tends to envisage space as a merely passive and abstract stage on which dramatization takes place. In search of alternative ways of reading the city, it subsequently explores the complexity in relations between space and identity. It reconceptualizes space as a palimpsest of historical layers and rethinks identity by recognizing the workings of the strange(r) in constructions of space and identity. Finally, the article suggests the development of a nomadic geography that would allow for a progressive politics to open up gaps and folds in the homogeneous space and discover new spaces that are neither friends nor enemies, neither inside nor outside. Cet article étudie le concept de sphère publique comme méthode de lecture spécifique de la ville. Étant donné les ambiguïtés actuelles de la situation urbaine, on peut se demander si ce concept génère encore, dans les faits, une géographie solide permettant de comprendre le paysage urbain. Explorer l’historique et le concept de sphère publique libérale révèle son système rigide de formation des identités dans l’espace, et interroge sa dimension performative en montrant comment l’espace est pensé en tant que simple scène passive et abstraite où a lieu une théâtralisation. Recherchant d’autres modes de lecture de la ville, l’article examine ensuite la complexité des relations entre espace et identité. Il reconceptualise l’espace en tant que palimpseste de couches historiques et repense l’identité en admettant les mécanismes de l’étrange(r) dans les constructions spatiales et identitaires. Pour finir, l’article propose l’élaboration d’une géographie nomade permettant à une politique progressiste de créer fossés et plissements dans un espace homogène et de découvrir de nouveaux espaces qui ne seraient ni amis ni ennemis, ni intérieurs ni extérieurs.

Date: 2005
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