{"product_id":"publics-and-counterpublics-9781890951283","title":"Publics and Counterpublics","description":"\u003cp\u003ePublics and Counterpublics revolves around a central question: What is a public? The idea of a public is a cultural form  a kind of practical fiction  present in the modern world in a way that is very different from other or earlier societies. Like the idea of rights  or nations  or markets  it can now seem universal. But it has not always been so. Publics exist only by virtue of their imagining. They are a kind of fiction that has taken on life  and very potent life at that.  Publics have some regular properties as a form  with powerful implications for the way our social world takes shape; but much of modern life involves struggles over the nature of publics and their interrelation. There are ambiguities  even contradictions in the idea of a public. As it is extended to new contexts and media  new polities and rhetorics  its meaning can be seen to change  in ways that we have scarcely begun to appreciate.  By combining historical analysis  theoretical reflection  and extended case studies  Publics and Counterpublics shows how the idea of a public works as a formal device in modern culture and traces its implications for contemporary life. Michael Warner offers a revisionist account at the junction of two intellectual traditions with which he has been associated: public-sphere theory and queer theory. To public-sphere theory  this book brings a new emphasis on cultural forms  and a new focus on the dynamics of counterpublics. To queer theory  it brings a new way of seeing how queer culture (among other examples) is shaped by the counterpublic environment.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45275409088565,"sku":"ByrdShop_1890951285","price":98.32,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781890951283.jpg?v=1780506223","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/publics-and-counterpublics-9781890951283","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}