Machinic assemblages of publicness

Buser, Michael

Abstract

© 2018 Urban Research Publications Limited This article discusses the concept of publicness through the lens of Deleuze and Guattari’s machinic thinking. Centring on the case of the Bearpit, a roundabout and public space in the city of Bristol (UK), I examine recent shifts and transformations in public culture and narrate the ways in which relatively small interventions facilitate new connections and organize public assemblages. The article makes four main contributions. First, it develops an approach to the study of publicness that highlights the interactions of machinic assemblages of material and immaterial component parts. Second, it suggests that specific forms of publicness are mediated by bright objects which stitch together and organize ecologies of connected machines. Third, it outlines publicness as a dynamic, plastic social form. Finally, it argues that the struggles for a compassionate public culture in the Bearpit are not necessarily set on a fixed trajectory toward co-optation or a return to revanchism, but rather are part of an incessant process of unfolding and becoming public where the concerns and contestations of publicness are made visible.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 13, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Mar 25, 2018
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 8, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 26, 2020
• Journal: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
• Print ISSN: 0309-1317
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2427
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 769-784
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12602
• Keywords: public space, machine, publicness, Deleuze and Guattari, assemblage, bright objects, Bristol
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/861704
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12602
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Buser, M. (2018) Machinic assemblages of publicness. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12602. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
• Contract Date: Sep 8, 2017