Historical Metamorphosis of the Athenian Agora: Changing Communication Technologies and the Enduring Quest for an Ideal Public Sphere
Open Access
- Author:
- Kittler, Juraj
- Graduate Program:
- Mass Communications
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 16, 2009
- Committee Members:
- Ronald V Bettig, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Ronald V Bettig, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Jorge R Schement, Committee Member
Amit Schejter, Committee Member
Deryck William Holdsworth, Committee Member - Keywords:
- London
Venice
public sphere
historical evolution
communication technologies
urban historical geography
comparative study
Agora
Athens
Philadelphia - Abstract:
- Ever since archeologists discovered the site of the ancient Athenian Agora in the 1930s, the term captured Western imagination. In its abstract form, the agora became a synonym of a perfect public space which was, by the sheer power of its existence, able to produce a democratic society of utopian qualities. But historical evidence shows that ancient Greek democracy was - similar to our own experience with the public sphere - riddled with partisan politics and personal interests. The normative ideal necessarily collided with social reality on the ground. Starting with classical Athens, this study explores different historical metamorphoses of the agora as its heritage was gradually passed to us through the urban communes of the High Medieval period, Renaissance Venice, and London in the golden age of its coffeehouses. The historical-empirical excursion ends in Philadelphia, tracing its transformation from a colonial town to an early industrial metropolis. In collecting historical-empirical evidence, this study relies exclusively on primary sources. In each studied case, the public sphere is conceptualized as the synergetic confluence of information flows mediated through evolving communication technologies and face-to-face encounters which take place within the physical container of various urban forms. In conclusion, the comparative analysis presents two archetypes of Western democracies and implicitly two corresponding archetypical public spheres as they gradually evolved in the West: (a) the classical republican ideal which was originally conceived in Athens and reached its full bloom in the historical reality of Renaissance Venice; and (b) mass democracy which was ushered in gradually through the experience of ‘early modern’ London, finding its fulfillment in the post-Revolutionary Philadelphia, and as an ideal still holds normative power over Western political imagination. In tracing the historical metamorphosis of the agora, this study focuses on the evolving concept of public opinion; examines the way different societies attempted to solve the conflict of private and public interests within the public sphere; analyzes spatial relationships between dominant urban centres and their local and global peripheries; sheds more light on the social determination of communication technologies; and reveals the historical roots of the articulation of democratic ideals with capitalism.