And the Public/Private Spheres

Most students in social science like the people-part of work. They like people; they like interacting with others, and they enjoy making it possible for others to surmount obstacles and live satisfying lives. We call that "helping" others.

Look at labor department's job descriptions for that percentage of jobs that is people-oriented. Notice that these bits of the job often go out-of-awareness. And let's consider the changing pattern of public/private life.

Read Social Work in a Private World

Notes: public/private sphere changing. How this relates to Oprah, to news media's discussions of private life. How loss of sense of community is leading to ever more emphasis on consumption. Private spaces exclude, reproduce specific class patterns.

In theory, as well as in social work, the shift from public to private has a major effect on the institution of family, school, work. Where children used to spend their time in school libraries and local public libraries, the city has become a place where the pc at home is more convenient to access material. What does that mean to us as a social group?

One professor proposed that we have murals painted on the bland walls of our building. The project dragged. Today, there are locked, glassed in bulletin boards, controlled by private groups. There is something on the walls, but it is not public. It is private.

Habermas sees the importance of the public sphere to legitimacy and public discourse. To the extent that we cut off the public sphere and make ours into a private world, we lose the skills of public discourse, we lose the sense of community and of shared ideals, values, and benefits that accrue to us all.

More soon. . . Meanwhile read Robert Fisher and Howard Karger, Social Work in a Private World

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