ABSTRACT

Kathrin Röggla: Public Space in Post-Democracy – A Case of Repair, Reappropriation or Calculated Gaps?

Starting from the diverse locations of civil society interventions, Kathrin Röggla describes a re-configuration of public space in the shadow of post-democracy. Berlin in particular stands exemplarily for the way space becomes liquid and flexible through an interplay of lobbyism, event formats, rumour mills and drives for temporary use, and new definitions of public spaces are constantly being created. It seems as though the ‘Fake City’ twenty years ago is now the ‘Fiction City’, as if the sole objective were to find to right narrative as an overwrite. This new orientation has to face resistance from a gradually consolidating security regime, the need for control in a ‘society of fear’, and the confusion generated by never-ending stream of delegations of responsibility.