Public Space and Democracy. Edited by Marcel Hénaff and Tracy B. Strong. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. 256p. $49.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Extract

Until recently space was a highly suspect concept in political theory. The linguistic turn that has dominated the discipline for the past 20 years has multiple roots. Derrida's critique of pure presence, Foucault's discourse analysis, and Habermas's communicative action, in different ways, contributed to an emphasis on language over place. Recent work in geography and cultural studies, however, has begun to reserve this trend.