CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Dervin, B., & Schaefer, D. J. (1999). Peopling the public sphere. Peace Review, 11 (1), 17-23. Reprinted in: B. Dervin & L. Foreman-Wernet (with E. Lauterbach) (Eds.). (2003). Sense-Making Methodology reader: Selected writings of Brenda Dervin (pp. 341-348). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
© Hampton Press and Brenda Dervin (2003), reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis, Ltd. (1999).

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ABSTRACT:
In this article, written for a lay and multi-disciplinary audience, Dervin and Schaefer start by contrasting a series of paradoxical polarities coming out of literatures that theorize or attempt to implement something called a “public sphere.” On one side, one finds a focus on structures, constraint, and societal change; on the other, a focus on individuals, personal freedom, and personal capacity for resistance. The difficulty the authors suggest is that at their extremes these polarities ricochet between calls for modernist improvements of societal structures and postmodernist fears that structural constraints and disciplines always sink to tyranny. The authors suggest that one source of these polarities is the acceptance on one side and rejection on the other of an emphasis on “factizing” in public spheres. The authors present an argument for a “proceduring” perspective positioned between the polarities, between structure and agency. They call for creating public spheres that attend to more than facitizing and use human diversity to deliberately enrich not only cultural projects but informational and knowledge projects as well.

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For Dervin,
See:  http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/AAauthors/authorlistdervin.html.
For Schaefer,
See: http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/AAauthors/authorlistschaefer.html.