Traboulsi 45Public Spheres and Urban Space: A Critical
Comparative Approach
Fawwaz Traboulsi
My guiding assumption is that theories, concepts and notions that arise
in one national or regional situation are not necessarily applicable in
another.^1 Although many ideals and values have become universal, irre-
spective of their initial birthplace, not every theory or concept or idea
produced in one theoretical field—the West in this case under study—is
necessarily endowed with the vocation of universal application without
prior testing or critical verification. In fact, the notion of the public sphere
is one that seems to be very much identified with the experience of Europe
and North America to claim a priori universal value and application.
o dispel any misunderstanding, I hasten to distance myself from T
two of the implications usually associated with such a statement. First,
the method implied by this assumption, far from adopting any form of
national or cultural essentialism, leads us primarily to engage in a his-
torical critical and comparative approach to the question of the public
sphere. Second, the mere fact that ideas, concepts and notions are con-
ceived and propagated by international institutions and declared “global”
does not, by itself, render them any more universal. Likewise, the claim to
“globality” does not bestow on such notions and concepts any semblance
of innocence.
fter a number of preliminary remarks inspired by the above-men-A
tioned assumption, I will establish a comparison between the situations
that gave rise to public spheres in Europe and North America and the Arab