ABSTRACT
The idea of the public space refers to a myriad of elements that interact with each other in a diverse fashion in each historical period. The analysis of these elements and their interactions involves thorough work that has been undertaken by many authors throughout modern history. As if this endeavour were not complicated enough in and of itself, analyzing a phenomenon that is so context-dependent about the same historical time period when it is being analyzed requires an enormous amount of work as a part of what is, in most cases, a life-time career (see the works by Niklas Lumann, Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Jürgen Habermas or Manuel Castells as clear examples). However, in a period of constant acceleration, increasing uncertainties, permanent change and complexity such as the one we are currently experiencing, this attempt becomes almost impossible. That is why this chapter will not afford an exhaustive analysis of the public space. Instead, it will reveal some of the main clues that should, in our view, guide the analysis and critical approach to the notion of public space. Particular emphasis will be placed on one of the crucial elements of the social and political transformations in which we are involved as a result of the globalization process: the ongoing cosmopolitanization of social and political life.
