Privatnost, javnost i moć
Privacy, Publicity and Power

Summary/Abstract: Continuous debates on the line of demarcation between “public” and “private” - both socially, legally and politically constructed notions, as well as numerous provisions – directly conditioned by sex, class and sexual orientation – relating to the issue what belongs to private or public sphere, show to what extend the “public” and the “private” are the political notions. The text questions the history of the public-private dichotomy through the lens of political philosophy and versatile political discussions in the West and it shows that when the line between the public and the private becomes an object of a public debate than we should take it as a signal to scrutinize the configurations of power that have a stake in the matters under discussion. Also, it indicates that thinking of “public” or “private” as fixed categories is misguided as there is no set of procedures that would enable drawing of a sharp, unquestionable and exclusive line between public and private - one that would be appropriate for all times and situations. What is private and/or what is public in the family life – which is often taken as a paradigm of private, is demonstrated through the requests and contentions on the issues of reproductive rights of women, the rights of individuals living in homosexual unions, and the rights on children adoption, as well as through the demands for grasping expressively the social dimension of maternity, health care, violence, etc. Another emphasis in the text is given to the importance of women’s empowerment, as well as the empowerment of other “minority” groups, especially when it comes to assuming public roles and responsibilities, and rendering of the political, “public,” protection in the “private.” The final definitional line between public and private, that is the one that would be valuable for all times and circumstances, cannot be drawn; but as the text implies, what is of importance is developing a sensible way of thinking about all those social questions that are directly conditioned by the power structures and influenced by the established norms.

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