The Romantic and the Dangerous Stranger in Public Spaces

• In Event: Foucault and the Discourses of Power, Subject, and Surveillance

Abstract

This paper suggests that symbolic and material uses of public space have powerful effects on communication. The author explores how vehicles of power shape places of potential social interaction -- how subjects are defined discursively, how the knowledge of the “other” is constructed and how this knowledge allows the subjects to be disciplined. This formation of the “other” is used to reinforce power through criminalization and commodification. The points of resistance are also considered.

Author

• Irina Gendelman, University of Washington