The article “The Public Domain” by Richard Sannett brings out the balance between the private and public lifestyles. The analogy presented compares between the early Roman Empire with the modern times through analysis and explanation of the similarity between people’s views regarding the public space. He writes about “love outside the public domain” where he expounds his claims of sexuality being socially measurable through its dimensions.
According to his writing, the modern person is rebellious to the sexual expression and this revolutionary hinders the eminent perception regarding sexuality. Selfishness or egotism denies the modern person opportunities because of viewing the significance of an event or a person as the benefits of an engagement. Today, people consider commitment as a restriction for prospective chances to gain or experience new things. People have traded off social participation for self-gain.
According to Richard Sannett, today the public space suffers from abandonment and it receives a non-existent perception for instance (p. 13), a London built house “the Brunswick Centre” has a middle public space with just a few shops however, majority part of the space is practically empty.
People consider this vacant space as an area to pass through and not to occupy with other practices or businesses. The public moreover utilizes less space since most of its area suffers from bunging from the most important avenues of London. It lessens the public feelings and this is the main reason why most people tend to seek out better definitive private space.
Richard Sannett also talks of the various changes found in the public domain. His iteration persuades people to understand the shift by ensuring they are aware of the difference between public and private. The meaning of the “public sphere” has undergone wide transformation to the current definition of life outside the family setting or that, which does not involve close friends.
People’s needs and interdependence styles of living have drastically declined from the desire to be in charge of public life to a desire of avoiding it. During the nineteenth century (p. 25), the reorganization of the worldly code had a huge impact on the public life, thus killing people’s aspiration to engage in it. People considered the public space as an eternal domain and therefore going close by appeared to be a disgrace.
Today the public life is comparable to the decline of the Roman Empire and has become a formal obligation. People seek the reflection of their consciousness on authenticity of the feelings as opposed to a manifestation of principals. The ideas of psychology of private life in the modern times are hectic considering that the lack of independence regarding social interaction, environmental influences and impulsive differences in generations is important.
The conscious mind remains as the only private life that cannot suffer the harsh social conditions and thus it lingers as an isolated entity for protection. This means that the inner personality has become a principal burden within and thus it is impossible to understand oneself as the basis to understanding the world. The refinement of personality is extremely severe for arrival at a private principal. We lack the ability to give account of ourselves and it becomes more difficult to experience and express feelings.
Under the current meaning of “private”, the society is only meaningful when converted as a complete spiritual system. For instance according to the normal perception, a politician job entails drafting and executing legislation but this does not trigger the concern of the society until there is a political struggle that shows their personalities. The perception is credible and legitimate but this can only get judgement through analysis of actions exposed especially to solve a conflict.
According to Sennett’s writing, people are obsessed with persons at the expense of critical social relations and this is the reason we are not able to legitimize rationality of the society. In the current industrialized society, the imposed believe shows the community as an act of communally shared personal disclosure that undervalues the relationship with strangers.
Ironically, this perception inhibits the development of basic personality strengths such as respect for other people privacy. In the present days, people live in a civilized manner where the evil secrets are undisclosed.
The public sphere is very important because of bringing individuals and communities together and enables the public agencies to bestow them with proper leadership. The privately managed organizations also provide guidance over operations that nurture health and power of gathering places.
To manage the public space successfully, flexible and responsive management that is strongly based on good decision-making procedures, entrepreneurship ideas, proper funding, networking and public involvement is imperative.
The role of the community in the public sphere is to ensure it reflects on people’s needs. The public place ought to be equipped with current social and economical amenities that interests and ensures people stay connected to each other. Facilities such as the park come about through proper use of the sphere. People are able to lounge and participate in the events when the space remains well balanced.
Today the private sphere is evident through the Information Communication Technology (ICT). Certain human elements have survived through time such as freedom or need for expression, companionship, necessity for information exchange through connections and communication though involvement. The ICT especially the web technology has broken the digital divide to allow virtual communication that rebuilds any lost communicative aspects.
Now the virtual communities fit the explanation of “third places” as Oldenburg portrays. People boast the need to discover dependable neutral grounds to interact and refuge. This is the “third place away from the first place; their homes and the second; their work place. The third place deals with issues pertaining public domain. Arguably, the pubs, salons and other social gathering places are a good representation of the third place these days.
There has been a great problem within the African American setting regarding the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). People were quite about the problem because of the perception that it is associated with consequences of behaviour.
The populace in the community remain stigmatized because the issue faces confinement with other aspects of immorality and sinful acts such as promiscuity or drug abuse. A functional community is self-sustaining because of its ability to address the wellbeing of its members and ensure they get direct or indirect approaches.
A healthy community is able to discuss and address issues concern with people survival such as HIV/AIDS. This is the role of the public sphere is certainly a creation of encouraging aspects of life such as emotional safety, or a sense of belonging. As Ray Oldenburg would put it, the third place functions has an aspect of compensating functions that are missing in peoples lives because without the community, the individual’s sense of wellbeing translates to poisoning
Works Cited
Sennett, Richard. “The Changes in the Public Domain.” The fall of Public Man. New York: Vintage, 1978: 12-27