SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS IN AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE - TOWARDS A THEORETICAL ARTICULATION

In this paper I explore the relationship between social representation s and the public sphere through the processes whereby the human subjec t develops a self, creates symbols and opens up to the diversity of a 'not-me' world. This is done at two levels, which, although related, a re analysed separately. The first concerns the logic of production of social representations. It concerns, therefore, social representations in the public sphere. It is suggested that the public sphere, as the place of the generalised other, is constitutive of social representati ons, in that it provides the ground for their emergence. The second le vel examines the problem of social representations of the public spher e. I discuss the moment at which something like a ''public'' becomes a conceivable to social actors, its relation to a private sphere of int imacy and the ways in which, the very transformations which the public space undergoes, institute individualism as the ultimate expression o f personal life. I argue that to look at the form and content symbolic representations of public life is crucial to assess contemporary expe riences of selfhood and the possibilities of preserving a sensus commu nis.